One of the Simple Pleasures of life that Marie and I enjoy is a standing “date night” where we set time aside specifically to spend it relaxing together doing something we both enjoy. One of our common interest is 1950’s Sci-Fi movies. What we call Schlocky Sci-Fi. We have quite a collection of our own, and we have discovered that we can “rent” others on-line and watch them on our television by patching my notebook computer into the TV with an HDMI cable. Those we particularly enjoy we will purchase for the collection.
Rentals can be had from Amazon.com, Hulu.com, and Netflix.com. Pricing generally runs either $1.99 or $2.99 from Amazon (our preferred provider) and both Amazon and Hulu offer some free rentals.
This week’s selection was “Destination Space”. Details provided with the listing were: Continue reading “Friday Date Night: Destination Space”
Building an Author Platform that can Launch Anything: a Social Media Minibook, by Toby Neal, is a concise yet information packed mini-book that gives straight-forward advice for authors on how to build an author platform (writer-speak for a system of marketing and promotional tools) that will build readership and excitement for both the author and their book. The end result: sales!
This free novella is the lead-in to Ms. Buroker’s series The Flash Gold Chronicles. And a fine lead it is. I’ll borrow the author’s synopsis:
Semper Audacia is the story of a warrior; the last of her kind, defending her home world via an orbital outpost. The planet’s population too has dwindled and is just hanging on. Their ancient foe attacks and the last guardian springs into action accompanied by a battalion of ghosts; the memories of her fallen comrades.
Arthur C. Clarke’s 1979 Hugo and Nebula Award winning novel, The Fountains of Paradise is Science Fiction’s definitive novel about the “space elevator,” or “Skyhook”. This concept enjoyed a brief period of enthusiastic interest among SF circles in the early 1980’s. The concept deals with an elevator (more like a monorail train car actually) that stretches from Earth’s surface to a space station in geosynchronous orbit, which would in turn serve as a construction, servicing and launching facility for ships voyaging to the moon, planets and even deep space. A primary plus was eliminating the need for expensive, inefficient, and environmentally unfriendly rocket launches from the ground. The whole idea seems incredible but is not outside the realm of engineering possibility. Clarke makes a strong case for the feasibility of such an unconventional project within the context of a completely engrossing story set mostly in the 22nd century.