Book Review: The Bomber Mafia by Malcolm Gladwell
Not my usual fare for this blog as it’s historical non-fiction, but this book made me reexamine my thinking vis-à-vis our conduct of the air war in Europe and Japan during WWII. Between The War to End all Wars (WWI) and our second global conflagration, a group of pilots tried to reimagine war. The wholesale…Read More
Meet the Pod: Hunter and Mellow
I like Hunter and named him after a guy I know. Hunter 319 is a nerd’s nerd. Even in the Pod, his nerdiness stands out. Before he was orphaned by Omicron Death, he lived with his parents and had schematics of the Millennium Falcon on the walls of his bedroom. He not only knows the…Read More
Book Review: Pighearted by Alex Perry
It was pure serendipity. Slogging through my first draft of Book 1 (which I was convinced was a masterwork but later learned was crap), I found the Houston Writers Guild and joined a critique group. As I read through the work of the other four authors, I smugly thought: Okay, I’m better. Yep, better. Is this…Read More
Book 2: Fire – first draft complete!
During the 12 Days of Page Turners online event, the host, Aimee Ravichandran (@aimeeravichandran) of Abundantly Social, asked me how long it took to write SPARK. I told her that I thought it took about a year to finish the first draft. There were eight drafts before it was done. So, having just finished my…Read More
Book Review: Uncaged by John Sandford & Michele Cook
Years ago, before eReaders and free video entertainment on airplanes, I travelled every week for work. Usually by air, so I spent lots of time in airports and didn’t yet have a Kindle or iPad. I was wed to actual, physical books. I still prefer to read that way, but there is a downside to…Read More
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?