Dragonfly, Hallowe'en Blog Hop - Trick or Treat, Happy Halloween Haunting:, Weekend Follies

Very Cool Cover Art!

Dragonfly Warrior Blurb: The Mechanica Wars: Savage Machines Are Afoot...

 

At the age of twenty, Kanze Zenjiro's bloody footprints mark the bodies of those who stood in his way to protect the throne of Nihon. Now, the tyrannical Iberian Empire is bent on destroying his kingdom, and they send their steam-powered giants and iron spiders against him.

 

Zen embarks on a quest that takes him on the most dangerous journey of his life. To succeed, Zen must live up to his nickname, the Dragonfly Warrior, and kill all his enemies with only a sword and a pair of six-guns. He is called upon to somehow survive a test of faith and loyalty in a world so cruel and merciless, it borders on madness.

 

Book Information: Dragonfly Warrior is a steampunk adventure like no other. It's a dynamic mix of Asian and European mythology, the Wild West, martial arts, traditional fantasy, and high powered steam action that will keep you turning the pages.

 

Dragonfly Warrior is the first book of The Mechanica Wars, and will debut on January 6, 2014.

 

Author Bio: After doing some freelance writing and editing for more than a dozen years, Jay decided to stop procrastinating and pursue his dream of being a novelist. He's been blogging for over eight years, and even had a comedy podcast syndicated all over the internet. All of that was fun, but all the steampunk-inspired stories in his head just wouldn't leave him alone. Jay spends his days working in medical sales, but he can be found toiling over his laptop late at night when all is quiet.

He draws inspiration from all over: H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, Shakespeare, Ray Bradbury, Douglas Adams, and Isaac Asimov.

 

And Jay loves cookies.

 

Hallowe'en Blog Hop - Trick or Treat (giveaway) Sponsored by Francine Howarth at Romancing The Blog. The objective, leave a comment if you want a “TREAT” which will be An Advanced Review Copy (ARC) of ESCALATION.

 

Happy Halloween Haunting: Brought to you by Debise Covey at Write … Edit … Publish. The objective, WRITE a story, fiction or non-fiction, a poem, find some scary photos -- (you could write your story in pics!) OR any form you like -- your choice!

 

Scary Story: I was to finish my book by today. Almost there. But this week sucked the time out of me like a Dementor sucking the soul out of a prisoner of Azkaban. Scary!. Spooky! Terrifying! But I’m shutting everything down this weekend and will finish!

Weekend Follies: I love this video. Classic! Enjoy!

Kibbles And Bits, Realm's Faire Stockade, The Day Of The Doctor

I need to keep moving on ESCALTAION and the MS is moving right along! So I'll keep today's post short and sweet.

 

NaNo: As crazy as this sounds, as I'm trying to wrap up ESCALATION, I'm going to join NaNo for November and write a book I have outlined three years ago.

 

This is a psychological thriller ala Stephen King from his early days. But forget these full length novels. This one will be a 175 page novella and I am not going to surpass that page number no matter what. But rest assured, this story is going to be real cool and very scary. And creepy.

Realm's Faire Stockade: Okay, this is a short post. And you took the time to stop by. So I'll include a pic of me in stockades. This is in preparation for Gwen Gardner's  Realm's Faire Stockade, for better or worse. Why am I smiling? Can somebody please get me a glass of grog? Make it three. I think I'm going to need them. Oktoberfest isn't over yet.

 

 What To Watch: 'The Day of The Doctor' is the 50th anniversary special of the British sci-fi television program Doctor Who. On Saturday, November 23, 2013, ‘The Day of The Doctor’ will be simulcast on television in over 75 countries including BBC America in the U.S., BBC One in the UK, and Space Channel in Canada. It will also be screened in cinemas in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Ireland, Germany, and Russia.

 

Doctor Who fans all over the world are coming together on Saturday November 23rd to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the show and watch the special episode ‘The Day of The Doctor.’ In addition to the Saturday screenings, there will be a special screening event Monday, November 25, 2013 showing The Day of The Doctor in over 300 theaters across the U.S. 'The Day of The Doctor' will also be available online on Sunday, November 24, 2013.

 

Check out more details by CLICKING HERE.

Celebrate The Small Things, Weekend Follies, and Spoofing Teleporting

Celebrate The Small Things: I'm thankful for my blogging pals! This was a very good week. After taking off the previous week to write, I bounced back strong with some awesome guests. Captain Ninja Alex, Mary Pax, and Pk Hrezo. Thanks all for stopping by!

 

Weekend Follies: As soon as I opened and read Alex's attachment on Teleporting, I knew exactly what I wanted to post for the Weekend Follies. Problem was, Alex sent me his post a month or so ago and I had to wait all this time to post it.

 

So here it is. Once again, I revert to one of the greatest genius minds of our time: Mel Brooks and his cult-classic movie Spaceballs. Take it away Mel and spoof teleporting as only you can ...

M Pax and Butterman (Time) Travel

Thanks everyone for stopping by for earlier this week. And thanks Alex for the awesome post on teleportation! A truly fascinating subject and one that inspires countless Sci-fi stories and episodes. Today I want to give way to Mary Pax and Pk Herzog, a couple of amazing writers that most of us know.

 

The Galactic Neighborhood: Comments about space and the universe often say things like how vast, empty, and lonely it is. The Milky Way doesn’t travel the universe alone, however. We have several galactic buddies, BFF’s, that travel with us.

 

The closest galaxies are the Magellan Clouds [can only be seen in the Southern Hemisphere]. Both are smaller and have partially merged, if not wholly merged, with our galaxy.

 

The closest spiral galaxy, like our own Mil ky Way, is Andromeda [M33]. A little over 2 million light years away [a light year is roughly 6 trillion miles, so the distance is 2 million x 6 trillion]. It’s blue-shifted in telescopes, which means we are traveling toward each other. [Most galaxies are red shifted, which means they’re moving away from us.] It is thought that we will eventually merge into one mega galaxy and some astronomers believe the merging has already begun. Most think the merging will not be a catastrophe, because star systems are fairly far apart in both galaxies.

 

Andromeda is one of my favorite things to look at in my telescope. It has two companions which are smaller, similar to our Magellan Clouds. Andromeda is also visible by eye.

 

There are several galaxies around the Big Dipper that are part of our galactic family, too. The Pinwheel [M101] and Whirlpool [M51]. Both had supernovae go off two years ago that were as bright in the telescopes as a star in our own galaxy. At 23 million and 35 million light years away, that’s amazingly bright.

 

I enjoy looking at both of these galaxies in my telescope as well.

 

We’re not as alone as we think.

 

Some truths are better left unfound.

 

For two years Craze’s dear friend, Lepsi, has been missing. The murmurings of a haunted spaceship might be a message and may mean his old pal isn’t dead. The possibility spurs Craze and Captain Talos to travel to uncharted worlds, searching. Out there, in an unfamiliar region of the galaxy beyond the Backworlds, they stumble upon a terrible truth.

 

Meanwhile, Rainly remains on Pardeep Station as acting planetlord, dealing with the discovery of her lover’s dark and brutal past. Alone and questioning her judgment, her introspection unlocks more than heartache. Latent protocols in her cybernetics activate, forcing her to face a sinister secret of her own.

 

In the far future, humanity settles the stars, bioengineering its descendents to survive in a harsh universe. This is the fourth book in the science fiction series, The Backworlds. A space opera adventure.

 

M. Pax-- Inspiring the words she writes, she spends her summers as a star guide at Pine Mountain Observatory in stunning Central Oregon where she lives with the Husband Unit and two demanding cats. She writes science fiction and fantasy mostly. 

 

CLICK HERE to visit Mary and check out her library of awesome books!

 

Butterman (Time) Travel: I’m a bit late for this as I took last week out. But I wanted to give a shout out for Pk Herzog’s Cover Reveal for Butterman (Time) Travel to visit Pk Herzog.

 

And if I could walk into a time travel agency and book a time trip, where and when would you book it, and why?

 

I would go into the future five years and bring back a Wall Street Journal. Then I could retire and spend my time writing and blogging full time.

 

Weekend Follies: You’ll want to stop by this weekend as we spoof, what else, teleportation. I've really go to get a badge for the Weekend Follies. See you then!

W4WS, Beam Me Up, Scotty, How To Build A Planet, and Escalation

W4WS: Hi everyone, hope you all had a great weekend! This month for Writers4Writers (W4WS) we have Alex J. Cavanaugh and Isis Rushdan as the participants. So take a few moments, stop by their Web sites, and copy and paste those Tweets and help them spread the good word!

 

Or can also go to #W4WS on Twitter and Retweet something. You can do this once or all week long as much as you feel inspired. B

 

But wait, that’s not all. Click the W4WS Facebook Page and then share their links with your Facebook friends and writers groups.

How W4WS works

 

Remember How This Works: The good people of Blogdom will promote the author’s book to their Twitter followers or Facebook friends, that is, to incredibly large new audiences the author could not reach on their own. Simple. Easy. Powerful.

 

Speaking Of Alex: he is a guest blogger here today to help promote his new release and concluding book to his trilogy CassaStar. The topic: Teleporting. Take it away Alex …

 

Beam Me Up Scotty! Those famous words, spoken almost fifty years ago, brought the idea of teleportation to the general public. What if we could actually teleport to another place or time?

 

The concept wasn’t new though. Science fiction literature had explored the idea for years. Technically, you could go back to stories like Aladdin, as the Djinns were able to transport themselves instantaneously from one place to another. While it was attributed to their magical abilities, it was in fact a form of teleportation.

 

I asked my local library to order Alex's books.

The term itself didn’t appear until 1931. Writer Charles Fort used it to describe unusual and unexplained disappearances. He created the word by joining the Greek prefix tele- (distant) and the Latin verb portare (to carry.)

 

Many science fiction authors used teleportation in their books. Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Barsoom series, written a hundred years ago, showed John Carter arriving on Mars via teleportation. Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov also used it in their stories and books. It’s also appeared in novels by Michael Crichton, Anne McCaffrey, CS Lewis, and Larry Niven.

 

The concept has also appeared in numerous films and television shows - Star Trek, Stargate, Thor, Back to the Future, Tron, Looper, Doctor Who, The Prestige, The Fly, and the new show, The Tomorrow People. We are fascinated by the concept of instantaneous travel.

 

Is it possible though? The website Sci-Fi Science – The True Science Behind Science Fiction http://www.scifiscience.co.uk/ explores the possibilities. Assuming man is made of carbon (although we are made of up many atoms), we’d need to know the coordinates of every atom in relation to time and how they’re located with other atoms at that time. The amount of information required just to teleport one type of atom would be immense. Recently scientists in Zurich were able to teleport information across a computer chip, but we are still a long way away from teleporting a person.

 

That doesn’t stop us from dreaming though! In my series, the Cassans can teleport their spaceships by using a device that is fueled by several unique compounds. The trigger comes from the mental powers of the Cassan race, as they use those powers to activate the device and teleport their ship. My main character, Byron, has the rare gift of being able to pour his own mental energy into the device and power it even when it’s been drained of energy. This unique ability comes into play numerous times in my series.

 

Whether possible or not, we’ll keep writing stories about teleportation while as scientists try to make it a reality. Perhaps one day we’ll get to experience it. I know it will make my commute to work a lot more pleasant!

 

Thank you Alex for your awesome post! And while you’re stopping by Alex’s Web Site for W4WS, check out all the relevant info regarding the author and CassaStorm.

 

What To Watch: There are a couple real cool shows definitely watching. Much more interesting than most of the mindless nonsense on TV these days:

 

How To Build A Planet: Join host Richard Hammond on the ultimate engineering project. How to Build a Planet uses stunning interactive CGI to reveal step-by-step how a world is put together. With a little help from the world's top scientists and engineers, Hammond will build the Earth and Solar System piece by piece. CLICK HERE for times and channels.

 

The Incredible Bionic Man: Meet the Bionic Man: a talking, breathing, walking man, made of the best prosthetic body parts and robotic technology available. CLICK HERE to view the whole episode.

 

Advanced Review Copy (ARC): If anyone would like to read and ARC of Escalation, please email me at Stephen.tremp@yahoo.com and I’ll at the beginning of November I’ll send you a code to download a copy for free. I’m up to 300 pages edited or in the editing stage for ESCALATION. I really think I can finish this be October 31st. Such a push! I’m almost there. Check out the synopsis by clicking the ESCALATION tab at the top of the Home Page.

 

Question: Would you teleport if the technology was available today? Are you going to watch How To Build A Planet? Do you request libraries to carry friend's books? Are you interested in reading an ARC of Escalation?

 

 

 

 

Taking The Day Off

Hi everyone. Hope you all had a great weekend! I'm going to take a couple days off to focus on writing another epic battle scene for ESCALATION. There are a few battles like this in the book, which will only make it that much more awesome!

 

This has been tricky trying to balance family, work, life, and writing. Been driving me a bit crazy to be honest (woob woob woob ... bad Curly imitation). I really need to wrap this scene up. I need a beer. Wish me luck and see you in a few days!

Weekend Follies

Hi everyone. A big round of thanks for help, comments, and words of encouragement with my cover reveal this week.

 

On my mid-week post I blogged about how I came up with the concept art. Today, I thought I'd share what I did on Facebook in the days leading up to the release. This was a spontaneous fun way to let people know the cover reveal was coming, and have a little fun with it. 

Give me an E ....
Give me a S ....
Give me a C ...
Give me an ALATION ....
What's it spell?
ESCALATION!!! Cover release just five days away!

Great Scott! Only five days until the cover release of ESCALATION!!! Marty, set the flux capacitor to 1.21 gigawatts. We're going to the future to get a sneak peak!

ESCALATION Cover Reveal in just five days! Safe for the whole family. Except the wormholes.

That's right Sherman. Only four days left until the cover reveal for ESCALATION. Fortunately, we have the WABAC machine and can go into the future for a sneak peak!

Hey Babe, forget about the Most Interesting Man In The World. I can take you places he can't. Like four days into the future with my TARDIS to get a sneak peak of Stephen Tremp's cover reveal for ESCALATION.

Really, Steve? I promote your first two books to important and interesting people around the world. And you won't give me a sneak peak of the cover art for ESCALATION? Really?

Let's pass this budget. We don't want to miss the cover reveal of ESCALATION only three days away!



ESCALATION Cover Release only three days away? I think we'll wait for the movie so we can spoof it on Mystery Science Theatre 3000.



Dudes and Dudettes. We're off to get a sneak peak at the Escalation Cover Release three days from now. Excellent!!!

We may have no control over which world we end up in, but at least we got to see a sneak Preview of the cover art for ESCALATION!!!

I hear something ... a transmission from outer space ... it says ... Escalation Cover Release in just two more days!!!

Happy early Christmas. Its a sneak peak at the ESCALATION cover reveal only two days away.

Come Mini Me. We're off to get an evil sneak peak of ESCALATION due out tomorrow!

Don't worry, sir. We'll get a sneak peak at ESCALATION the old fashioned way. We'll break in and steal it.

Great! NASA spends all this money to get a sneak peak at ESCALATION Cover Reveal, and now the International Space Station is ruined and I'm floating aimlessly in space. George Clooney, where the heck are you?

Question: There has been talk around Blogdom regarding Cover Reveals and if they are effective any more, the concern being promo overload.

 

Have to admit, it has me thinking. I will help with Cover reveals through the rest of the year. Then in 2014 I will focus on more science and Sci-fi related posts. I have been getting away from my roots and trying to get back.

 

What are your thoughts on Cover Reveals as there sure are a lot (myself included) these days.