Science of the Week, 8/29/14

It's hard to believe it's Labor Day Weekend, isn't it? I hope you have some fun things planned for the unoffical end of summer.

Here are some of the most interesting science news articles I read this week:

Bioluminscent trees could light up our streets
(This was published back in March, but I just read it on Sunday)

Female anaconda has "virgin birth"

Scientists grow organ in animal from cells created in lab 

System automates reasoning, hypothesis generation over complete medical literature

 Fibre-based satiety ingredient shown to make you eat less

Chimp intelligence "runs in families," environment less important

Scientists: solar system inside searing gas bubble

Do we live in a 2-D hologram?

Snowfall in a warmer world

Neuroscientists reverse memories' emotional associations

Error memories enable improved performance and faster learning


Have a great weekend, and stop by on Monday if you have time.

Beautiful Words or Wonderful Ideas?

I don't read many mainstream fiction writers regularly. One of the few I do is Sarah Addison Allen, and that's because she writes magical realism. If you're not familiar with the genre, it's similar to old-school urban fantasy (like de Lint), but with the fantasy or magical element made far more subtle. Books like these seek to elevate you above the ordinary with beautiful language. On the other hand, fantasy also wants to transport to a different world, but it takes a more literal approach. Depending on the subgenre, the style may be elevated for high fantasy or straightforward for modern urban fantasy. Patricia McKillip excels at combining a poetic writing style with a sense of wonder, and I would say Bujold does as well.

Do you have a preference for beautiful words or wonderful ideas? I'm sure many people will say they want both, but do you think one is more critical than the other? Which authors do you think do words, ideas, or both well?

#Piesforparkinsons

Even I have heard by now of the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. However, have you heard of the Pies for Parkinson's challenge? My husband decided to combine the two challenges, but he needed a little help from our son. If you follow the link, you can see the result. Enjoy!

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10204950107179329&l=1486736441394191373 

Science of the Week: 8/22/14

It's the first day of second grade for my son today.Yes, it may seem strange that he goes back on a Friday, but I think it's partly because his school goes from preschool through high school, and the older kids have special events that take place earlier in the week. Or perhaps it's so the young kids can get the first day excitement out of the way, recuperate over the weekend, and start fresh on Monday. I'm just as excited as Alex is--perhaps more so.

Anyway, here are some of the most interesting science news articles I read this week:

Why global warming is taking a break

The doctor can see you now: high-tech health gadgets to watch for

First indirect evidence of so-far undetected strange baryons

New home for an "evolutionary misfit"

FDA-approved drug restores hair in patients with alopecia areata

Laser device may end pin pricks, improve quality of life for diabetics

MIT helps drones monitor their own health on long flights

The ABCs of animal speech: not so random after all

How lizards regenerate their tails: researchers discover genetic "recipe"


 Have a good weekend, and I'll see you on Monday!

Ren Faire

My family and I went to the Bristol Renaissance Faire on Sunday. The last time we were there was before Eugene and I got married; Alex has never been there. We had great weather and a good time. Unfortunately, the pictures I took on Eugene's camera are in the wrong format for posting, but here are a few shots from my cell phone.

 A fairy posing by some flowers. Fairies were everywhere.

Eugene helps Alex with the crossbow.











Eugene and Alex after fencing with each other. (Eugene won quite handily. There's a video on my Facebook page.)

EDITED TO ADD: By request, here's a picture of me with someone else in costume.


In addition to all of this, we watched jousting, falconry, and a fire-whip show; tried archery; examined armor; and just enjoyed the atmosphere. I wore my queen costume and braided my hair and got some compliments on them. 

Have you ever been to a Ren Faire? What period of history would you like to see recreated?

Seasons' Beginnings Available for Pre-Order!

Last week, Amazon gave indies the ability to make their books available for pre-order. Naturally, I decided to try this new feature. It involves uploading a draft file, but luckily I already had that formatted. I just have to have the final draft uploaded ten days before the due date. Hopefully my beta readers will get back to me on schedule so I have time to make any last-minute changes.

The publication date is October 21, 2014. You can pre-order the eBook for $2.99 at this link. The paper version will be $14; I'll try to make it available close to 10/21. Here again is the cover and blurb:

Kron Evenhanded is an artificer, able to enchant any man-made object, but he finds people more difficult to work with. When he visits the city of Vistichia, he encounters Sal-thaath, an extremely magical but dangerous child created by Salth, another magician Kron knew at the Magic Institute. Kron attempts to civilize Sal-thaath, but when his efforts lead to tragedy, Kron is forced to ally himself with a quartet of new deities and their human Avatars. Together they must defend Vistichia as Salth attempts to drain its life and magic. But Salth has Ascended halfway to godhood over Time. Will Kron’s artifacts be enough to protect the Avatars, especially the woman he loves, or will Time separate them?

Science of the Week, 8/15/14

Here are some of the most interesting science news articles I read this week:

Keeping filler ingredients out of your cup of coffee

Pairing old technologies with new for next generation electronic devices

Salk scientists uncover new clues to repairing an injured spinal cord

The evolution of PMS: It may exist to break up infertile relationships

Clinical trial evaluated safety of stem cell transplantation in spine

NIH: Bioengineers create functional 3D brain-like tissue

Tattoo biobatteries produce power from sweat

"Shape-shifting" material could help reconstruct faces

Running on waste heat

Bypass commands from the brain to legs through a computer

New frontiers of fecal microbiota transplantation

Treating cancer with bacteria shows real promise

Japanese farmers just got a new pesticide: the flightless ladybug

That should be plenty of links for everyone. Have a good weekend, and see you Monday!

August Issue of Indie Writers Monthly Is Out!

It's a little late, but we finally have the August issue of Indie Writers Monthly available. This issue includes an interview and time travel story from Jeff Hargett, blog and book reviews from me, a book review from PT, title advice from Briane, and editing advice from Andrew. Best of all, it's free today through the 17th.

If you missed any of the previous issues of Indie Writers Monthly, you can also pick them up for free, at least for now. Here are the direct links to the March, April, May, and June issues. I don't have the direct link for the July issue, but it should be free from now through the 16th.

Although the First Annual IWM INDIE-Pendence Day Anthology isn't free (unless you're part of Kindle Unlimited), it's still a good value at $3.99 for fourteen stories about time travel. Check it out here.

Facts for Fiction: The Future of the Mind

It's been a long time since I posted a Facts for Fiction article. (In fact, I think this is only the second time I used it.) However, even though I read a fair amount of non-fiction, I haven't come across any books I wanted to discuss until recently, when I read Michio Kaku's The Future of the Mind: The Scientific Quest to Understand, Enhance, and Empower the Mind.

Kaku's book is divided into three main sections: the mind and consciousness, mind over matter, and altered consciousness. The first section discusses ways to study the brain and provides a working definition of consciousness. According to Kaku, "consciousness is the process of creating a model of the world using multiple feedback loops in various parameters (e.g., in temperature, space, time, and in relation to others), in order to accomplish a goal (e.g., find mates, food, shelter)." There are various levels of consciousness, with animals less able to model the world (in particular, the future), than humans. Having established this, Kaku then goes on to discuss scientifically valid ways in which telepathy, telekinesis, memory creation/manipulation, and intelligence enhancement can be accomplished. Finally, he covers even more exotic subjects such as mind control, artificial minds, minds made of energy, and alien minds. There is also an appendix on quantum consciousness, which is something I make indirect use of in the Catalyst Chronicles. Alas, Paul's and Julia's Catalyst abilities aren't considered scientifically plausible, though I can't change them at this point in the series.

Kaku provides clear explanations for how the various therapies and enhancements might work, and he does touch on some of the legal and ethical questions that might arise from them. I don't think he works through the implications of all his topics equally. For instance, he mentions that a mind without outside stimulation (for example, a mind duplicated on a computer) would eventually go insane. However, this doesn't seem to be an issue for energy minds. Perhaps this is meant as an exercise for the science fiction writer. He also talks about what characteristics might give rise to an alien intelligence. For example, he mentions that predator species tend to be more intelligent than prey species. I admit I feel a bit challenged to come up with an intelligent prey species, perhaps one that had to evolve to keep up with its predator. (The Sparrow might be a good example of a dual alien race society.) All in all, however, I recommend this book to any science fiction writer interested in learning how our minds, robots, aliens, or any type of intelligence might evolve or by affected by technology.

Science of the Week, 8/8/14

The most important thing about today is that it's my husband's birthday. Hope you have a great day, sweetie!

Here are some of the most interesting science news articles I read this week:

Transparent mice allow incredible anatomical views

NASA scientists claim "impossible" space travel engine could actually work

 Companion planets can increase old worlds' chance at life

Research maps 2,000 year migration 

I see what you sound like: extracting audio from visual information

No-power Wi-Fi connectivity could fuel Internet of Things reality

Planet-like object may have spent its youth as hot as a star

Researchers make super-angry, aggressive bugs (like we need more of those)

Adapt or die >= Die sooner to adapt faster

Ibprofen relieves women's hurt feelings, not men's 

Advanced thin-film technique could deliver long-lasting medication

Seasons' Beginnings Cover Reveal!

As much as I admire and appreciate the covers Meghan Derico did for me (she's done Lyon's Legacy, "The Mommy Clone", Twinned Universes, and "The Book of Beasts"), I figure a new series should go in a new direction. I therefore contacted Maria Zannini, The Book Cover Diva. She's been featured on this blog before. Maria took my vague ideas and quickly transformed them into an awesome cover. Without further ado, I present to you Seasons' Beginnings, Book One of the Season Avatars Series!

 

Maria also designed a cover (front and back) for the print version, but she can't finish that until I have the final page count.

Now all I need to do is finish the next story in the Catalyst Chronicles series. Oh, and edit the next book in the Season Avatars series, and develop that idea I was toying around with earlier today, and....

Travel in Fantasy

So, with Seasons' Beginnings in the hands of the beta readers and cover artist, and with the book about 98% formatted (I still have to add some back matter, in addition to making final revisions once all the beta readers get back to me with their comments), I'm currently editing Scattered Seasons, Book Two of the Season Avatars series. The plot for this book revolves around the next leader of the Season Avatars. She must travel around the country of Challen to find the other three Season Avatars born in the same year as she was. The question I'm pondering now is how much detail I need to go into about the travel and what kind of incidents need to happen along the way. I don't want to write travelogs because they're expected by readers or to pad out the story; each event should have meaning. Based on the ending of Seasons' Beginnings, I've added a plot twist that affects how Gwen, the protagonist of Scattered Seasons, deals with the people she meets. This in turn may change how she evolves over this book. Other things I want to accomplish with the travel is to show readers different parts of the country so they can become familiar with it and the culture. Of course, there will be obstacles along the way and different modes of travel. Before I go and edit each scene, I should probably step back, reread the entire draft, and think about the overall arc for this book. Then each of the mini-journeys Gwen makes will work together, not separately.

As a reader, how much do you enjoy reading about journeys? Do you expect it? Do you find such scenes tedious and wish the characters could instantly transport themselves wherever they need to go so they can get on with the action? What do you like or dislike about travel scenes?

Science of the Week, 8/1/14

Here are some of the most interesting science news articles I read this week:

Artificial intelligence identifies the musical progression of the Beatles
(you know I can't resist a Beatles mention)

Stanford biologist warns of early stages of Earth's 6th mass extinction event

New technology allows hair to reflect almost any color

Bacteria's ability to fight obesity

Astronomers detect mysterious signal 240 million light-years from Earth

Healthy lifestyle may buffer against stress-related cell aging

Vision-correcting displays

A market for emotions

Mysterious molecules in space

A blood test for suicide

Building "invisible" materials with light

Potential universal blood test for cancer discovered

Have a good weekend, and see you Monday.

Blog Ring of Power--Matthew Cox

It seems like it's been a long time since we had a Blog Ring of Power interview. Today Matthew Cox returns to share his words of wisdom with us. You can find the other parts of his interview at the links below:


About You
The Writing Life
The Creative Process
About Your Current Work

 Are you working with the same publisher on your second/additional books? Has the dynamic changed at all since your first book was published?

Yep. I am currently sending things to Curiosity Quills. The dynamic is more or less the same; they’re a great crew!

Do you have any advice for other writers just starting out?

Characters are the heart of your story, keep them believable in their reactions and the rest should fall into place. Seek feedback. Don’t take criticism personally (if it is offered constructively).

Do you have anything specific that you want to say to your readers?

I hope I’ve been able to take you out of the real world for a little while and let you share in the strange things that go on in my head. Nothing pleases me more than providing an escape for others, even if it’s brief.

What are your current / future project(s)?

Books 2 and 3 of Division Zero (Lex De Mortuis, and Thrall) are written and with the publisher now. The first 4 books in the Awakened series are also with CQ. I’m currently working on notes for book 5 of The Awakened series. I’ve got an MG fantasy (Emma & the Banderwigh) on submission with them as well as an anthology of short stories.
I’ve also got an ongoing fiction project on my blog.

Born in a little town known as South Amboy NJ in 1973, Matthew has been creating science fiction and fantasy worlds for most of his reasoning life. Somewhere between fifteen to eighteen of them spent developing the world in which Division Zero, Virtual Immortality, and The Awakened Series take place. He has several other projects in the works as well as a collaborative science fiction endeavor with author Tony Healey.

Hobbies and Interests:
Matthew is an avid gamer, a recovered WoW addict, Gamemaster for two custom systems (Chronicles of Eldrinaath [Fantasy] and Divergent Fates [Sci Fi], and a fan of anime, British humour (<- after="" and="" deliberate="" fiction="" happens="" intellectual="" it.="" life="" nature="" of="" p="" questions="" reality="" science="" that="" the="" what="">
He is also fond of cats.

Author Contact Information

Blog:
Facebook page:
Goodreads author page:
Twitter: @mscox_fiction


When thirteen-year-old Natalie Rausch said she would die to meet DJ Crazy Todd, she did not mean to be literal.

Two years is a long time to be stuck between two people who want nothing more than to destroy each other. A tween crush on the larger-than-life jock from a local radio station is the only trace of a once-happy life ruined by warring parents.

Whenever WROK 107 ran a contest, she would dive for the phone, getting busy signals and dead air every time. She never expected to get through, but at least with her best friend at her side, it used to be fun.

Before her parents ruined that too.

Her last desperate attempt to get their attention, falling in with a dangerous group of older teens, goes as wrong as possible. With no one left to blame for her mess of a life but herself, karma comes full circle and gives her just a few hours to make up for two years’ worth of mistakes–or be forever lost.

Permafree Lyon's Legacy, Seasons' Beginning Update, and IWM

There will be a Blog Ring of Power post on Wednesday (the day was shifted to fit with a blog tour), but I have several pieces of exciting news in the meantime.

First, I've decided to make Lyon's Legacy permafree as an experiment. You can currently get it free on Amazon, Smashwords,  or Kobo. (Barnes and Noble is pending.) So far, about 900 copies have been downloaded on Amazon, and all I personally did was mention it in a few places on Facebook and Goodreads. The book peaked at #2 on the 100 Free Time Travel best seller list and below 500 for overall free books
on Amazon before downloads slowed down yesterday. I'm still waiting to see if this new-found visibility will translate into sales of other books, though I don't expect all readers to continue with the Catalyst Chronicles series.

Second, I've started working with a cover artist for Seasons' Beginning  and have sent it out to several beta readers. I've also added it to Goodreads; you can find it here. It will be available in both eBook and print, but I'm considering putting it in Select first for 90 days before making the eBook available everywhere. It should be interesting to see how Kindle Unlimited works, but I don't want it to be permanently exclusive to Amazon either. If you read on a non-Kindle platform, please let me know if this would affect you.

Finally, if you're not reading the Indie Writers Monthly blog, you're missing some good content. Briane is wondering if talking turtles are speculative fiction, Andrew is exploring the blueprint of modern fantasy, and I'm discussing how to break grammar rules in fiction for effect. Pat Dilloway also announced a special omnibus edition of his work. Stop on by and see what's new this week!

Science of the Week, 7/25/14

Here are some of the most interesting science news articles I read this week:

Nearsightedness increases with level of education and longer schooling
(maybe it's a good thing I didn't get a Ph.D)

Steam from the sun: hi-tech sponge turns solar energy into steam
(Sounds like this would be useful for a steampunk story)

Herbivores dine on toxic plants, thanks to gut microbes

Fly's super-hearing power could aid humans

Single tree grows 40 kinds of fruit

Black holes may collapse into their exact opposites: white holes

Researchers create the first model of the DNA "replication fork"

Astronomers come up dry in search for water on exoplanets

Have a good weekend, everyone, and see you Monday!

Guest Post--Birth of a Hybrid by Stephen Weinstock

I have a guest post today from Stephen Weinstock, author of  1001, or The Reincarnation Chronicles. He's here to tell us about how his work is both science fiction and fantasy--and more.

BIRTH OF A HYBRID

by Stephen Weinstock

I am the white sheep in my family.  I am the sole artist among a group of scientists, and though I love the sciences and don’t believe my parents, brother, or Uncle Stanley ever worked for the Dark One, I prefer to think of myself as the brave little lamb who ventured outside of the dark laboratory, into the bright light of the Arts.

My parents met while working on The Manhattan Project at Los Alamos during World War Two.  Yes, we’re a nuclear family.  They were only in their twenties, my father a physics grad student at Columbia, and my mom a lab technician who got her job answering an ad in the New York Times.  Before their careers had even started, they were working shoulder to shoulder with the greatest minds in the world.  My mother remembered walking to work behind Oppenheimer, and holding hands with Richard Feynman after his wife died in Santa Fe.  Inspired by the war effort, my father continued to do science directly related to social needs, and ended his life pioneering the first scientific research on air pollution.

In the new era of DNA research, my brother George headed one of the main labs that mapped the human genome, and currently is at the center of the Human Microbiome Project.  The HMP aims to map every species of organism living inside the human body, and figure out what they’ve been up to for the last million years.  Talk about the arts meeting the sciences: the project surpasses anything in science fiction!

I’m proud of my family, and was a happy third-grader bringing my dad’s model of the atom to Show and Tell.  I went through an obligatory period of rejection, protesting Livermore’s nuke production when I was a grad student at Berkeley.  That passed, so as my path led into the performing arts, I rekindled my love of science through Star Wars, literary works such as Italo Calvino’s Cosmicomics, and an interest in speculative works of art.

I was a composer for years, so I never took the one burning idea I had for a novel too seriously.  I thought it would be fun to read a book where a group of characters remembered fragments of their past lives, discovered their stories were intertwined, and solved the huge puzzle of their karmic history.  One thing I loved about the idea was that the past life stories could be historical fiction, science fiction, romance, or whatever, a hybrid of genres.

One Tuesday during my middle age crisis, while I was driving to Princeton to play a modern dance class, I realized how my book idea could be done.  The model would be The Thousand and One Nights, a book where every new story that Scheherazade tells the King ranges from history to romance to religious parable to dirty joke.  As I researched the Nights, I became fascinated by its mysterious history, imagined a host of mathematical structures hidden under my use of this model, and decided to be a writer!

My series, 1001, or The Reincarnation Chronicles tracks the past life stories of a qaraq, a group of ten (or eleven) souls traveling together through Time, currently living in the suburbs of New Jersey.  Since my parents helped build the bomb, and my brother is finding every extra-human creature inside us, I didn’t want to do anything too small.  The eleven books of the series contain a 1001 chapters, each chapter revealing a past life tale.  But that’s not the only way the book satisfies my science genes.

First, my work process for each chapter involves filling out a form that deals with basics like plot and character, but also selects what I need to include in terms of eleven hidden math structures at work in the text.  This process is a whole tale in itself, but suffice it to say I feel like a lab technician filling out a report when I prepare to write the next chapter.

Second, given the hybrid genre of the series, I get to write as many sci-fic/fantasy tales as I wish, which has fed my creative soul plenty.  There are stories about bored chunks of supercontinents gazing up at the heavens, sub-atomic particles having a lover’s spat, and the ten souls of the qaraq inhabiting the body parts of a single Carboniferous era dragonfly.  (You can get free reads of two dinosaur tales on my site, qaraqbooks; see the sidebar: Online Tales from 1001.)  Currently, I am writing the section of the qaraq’s history where they evolved from prokaryotes to the first species on land – plants, not amphibians!  It was a tough time for them, but at least they discovered sex.

Finally, the scope of the karmic history speaks directly to my love of things scientific.  The tales go back before evolution and the Big Splat by four or five universes, and stretch in a similar direction into the future.  I get to decide how our cosmos is going to sputter out, and of course reincarnate.  Book Five culminates with the qaraq’s involvement in The Manhattan Project.  And the qaraq incarnates as anything, not just humanoid creatures: inanimate objects, philosophical concepts, nuclear forces, or protozoan organisms living inside us.  Thanks, bro.

So now that I have published Book One, The Qaraq, I have successfully merged my arts and science background.  Perhaps I am no longer the white sheep, but a curious hybrid of white and black, my very own clone.

STEPHEN WEINSTOCK has created scores for theater companies, choreographers, and dance studios; he currently works at LaGuardia HS (the Fame School).  He is author of the series 1001, based on the Arabian Nights, about a group of people who discover they have shared 1001 past lives.

You can purchase Stephen's book on amazon, or email him at drstephenwATcomcastDOTnet with any questions.

WisCon--Walk the Walk?

When you've been going to a particular convention for a long time, it becomes a home away from home. Even if you don't speak to other attendees, you know their names and faces. You develop traditions (the first night of the con we go to this restaurant, we stop by these stores and these places in the dealer room) and memorize the hotel layout. So when something upsetting happens at the con, it affects you too.

Last year, a well-known editor who was employed by Tor harassed at least two women, one of whom is my friend. (What's especially upsetting is that this was my friend's first-ever convention.) One of the women wrote about the experience here. My friend's report about this year's convention is here. WisCon apparently misplaced the reports these women filed, and the former editor (he got fired after the incident became public) was allowed to attend this year's WisCon. A ruling finally came out last Friday, with the result that the guy is banned for at least four years and may be allowed to return if he demonstrates improved behavior.

I know this guy by sight, but I haven't had much occasion to speak with him. From reports I've heard, he has a long history of harassing women, which makes me glad that I got rejected from Tor ages ago. This history suggests that any changes to his behavior may be superficial or temporary. I don't know if WisCon has had to deal with a situation like this before; it's possible the ruling was issued this way to establish a precedent, allowing future harassers a chance to redeem themselves. However, this ruling doesn't do much (IMO) to address the victims' safety or mental well-being at the convention. Why would you return if you risk encountering your harasser again? And while I don't know how this decision was reached, I know this guy had connections. It makes me wonder if there is some power play behind this decision. I'd like to think the committee was as objective as possible, and maybe no decision would have pleased everyone. But even the suspicion of power plays supporting a harasser at a feminist convention is upsetting.

I normally register for next year's WisCon and make my hotel reservation while at the convention, and I did so this year. WisCon is the first con I ever attended, the birthplace of Broad Universe, and it's set in the city that I love. I see friends here that I don't see outside of WisCon. I don't want to boycott this convention. I just want it to walk the walk when it comes to supporting women. Whether that's something ordinary members can accomplish, or whether it's a matter for volunteers or committee members, I don't know. It's not an issue that can be solved in a single blog post. I don't care if Tor stops throwing parties at WisCon; I care that all attendees feel safe, no matter who they are. I intend to look for more information from WisCon and other people in the WisCon community as the countdown to WisCon 39 continues.

Science of the Week, 7/18/14

Here are some of the most interesting science news articles I read this week:

Researchers consider the "anticrystal"

3D printed anatomy to mark a new era for medical training

Squishy robots

DARPA developing implants to help with TBI memory loss

Researchers discover why it's so hard to grow an extra finger

Mutation stops worms from getting drunk

New feathered dinosaur from China sheds light on dinosaur flight

Friends have more DNA in common than strangers


Have a good weekend, and I'll see you Monday!

Blurb and Call for Beta Readers: Seasons' Beginnings

Last month, I finished the second draft of Season's Beginnings, Book One in my fantasy Season Avatars series. I am currently looking for beta readers for this project. Here's what I have so far for the blurb:

Kron Evenhanded is an artificer, able to enchant any man-made object, but he finds people more difficult to work with. As he visits the city of Vistichia, he encounters Sal-thaath, an extremely magical but dangerous child created by Salth, another magician Kron knew at the Magic Institute. Kron attempts to civilize Sal-thaath, but when his efforts lead to tragedy, Kron is forced to ally himself with a quartet of new deities and their human Avatars. Together they must defend Vistichia as Salth attempts to drain its life and magic. But Salth has Ascended halfway to godhood over Time. Will Kron’s artifacts be enough to protect the Avatars, especially the woman he loves, or will Time separate them?

If this sounds like something you'd like to beta read, please comment below or e-mail me at ulbrichalmazanATsbcglobalDOTnet. If you have any suggestions for improving the blurb, please let me know that as well. Thanks!