Book Review: Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
In case you’ve been living on Mars, Andy Weir wrote The Martian. It’s so good they made a movie out of it starring Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Kate Mara, Kristen Wiig, Jeff Daniels, Donald Glover, and some other famous people that I can’t remember now as I’m too busy thinking how cool it would be…Read More
Amazon Live
I’m going to be interviewed by D. Scott Smith on Amazon Live today, November 4, 2021, to talk about Spark. You can watch it live or archived via these links: Streamyard link https://streamyard.com/bzppfqdbwd Amazon link to watch live or replay: https://amazon.com/live/broadcast/27256feb-401f-426e-92a9-a4eb9f05e71d?ref=social&tag=dennisscottsm-20&linkCode=ilv
Book Review: The Lost Gate by Orson Scott Card
Ender’s Game was the first book I read by Orson Scott Card http://www.hatrack.com. I read it when it first came out and was hooked by Card’s writing. It may be one in my top 10 of all time. Janne from SPARK was named after the AI in Ender’s Game. A couple of weeks ago, I…Read More
SPARK – the original first chapter
I had second thoughts about posting this. Some of the writing makes me cringe. I originally wrote the entire book in Third Person Omniscient – as told by the all-knowing, all-seeing narrator. It allowed me to do some simultaneous perspectives and foreshadowing that I enjoyed. My publisher didn’t. She wanted a POV (Point Of View)…Read More
A nice review
SPARK was reviewed by onlinebookclub.org. Here’s what they had to say: https://forums.onlinebookclub.org/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=200256 Reading through the comments below the review, it seemed that some readers of the review came away thinking that it was a “sad” book. Yes, some sad things happen, but is that what those of you who read it thought?
Book Review: The Red String by D. Marie Prokop
I picked up this book at a local Comic Con – Baytown TX to be exact. I was there at my publisher’s table, hawking my book (and others) and figured I’d spread a little love to other local authors who were doing the same. There wasn’t much conversation, but I’m assuming that the woman who…Read More
Will’s first brush with Death
When my editor rightfully shamed me about Will being such a wimp that he stayed away from SPARK for 40 days, I had to make some other tweaks beyond getting rid of the dog. One sub-theme I liked was the impersonality of the universe. The black grass didn’t care. It just turned toward the strongest…Read More
A boy and his dog
In Draft 2, Will spent a lot of time being homeless in Barstow. 40 days, actually. Yes, that was an allusion to another great hero who spent 40 days in the desert. The instigating event was the same as it is in the published version – an uncomfortable run in with Feral and an anonymous…Read More
Dramatis Personae Part 4: SPARK Security
At the top of the SPARK Security food chain sits Jeffrey Hodgins. He’s most commonly called “Hodge” by those close to him. HVH needed personal protection, so he went headhunting at the US Secret Service – those charged with protecting the President. He found Hodgins and managed to lure him away. Hodgins originally was the…Read More
Dramatis Personae Part 3: What’s in a Janne?
Janne is a homophone of Jane and Jayne and rhymes with cane and pain. It’s a name that started out as an acronym: Just Another Neural Network Experiment. After developing Black Grass, Hecker Van Horne and his team needed to figure out a way to control the blades so that they would maintain optimum orientation for absorption of radiation. It’s…Read More