Breaking News & Random Musings on Space, Technology, Sci-Fi & the View From A Writer’s Window
I’ve taken a momentary detour from Amaranthe to Thedas - I’m playing Dragon Age: The Veilguard. I don’t spend nearly as much time playing video games as I used to; writing is a full-time job, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. But I’ll always play a Bioware game (admittedly, Baldur’s Gate 3 got me this year, too - it was incredible, in all the best Bioware-style ways).
Anyway, Veilguard is an absolutely gorgeous game!
So the neighborhood we moved into is brand new and very much still being built out. Last week, they finished the streets for the final block and put up the street signs - which was when we came to a glorious realization:
Our entire neighborhood is an homage to the gods of Classic Rock.
These are all the street names:
Page (Jimmy Page, Led Zeppelin)
Plant (Robert Plant, Led Zeppelin)
Bonham (John Bonham, Led Zeppelin)
Daltrey (Roger Daltrey, The Who)
Entwhistle (John Entwhistle, The Who)
Lennon (John Lennon)
Clapton (Eric Clapton)
Zevon (Warren Zevon)
Frehley (Ace Frehley, Kiss)
Simmons (Gene Simmons, Kiss)
How awesome, right? It feels like a labor of love on the part of the developer. Perhaps a tribute to the music that shaped their youth.
There is one downside, though.... When we picked our lot, we didn't know the full breadth of our options, as most of the streets didn't yet have names. And now, #MrJennsen must forever live with the devastating knowledge that he missed his one chance to live on Zevon Lane....
As promised, I give you a finished (for now) library! And the best part is...we found a home for the book cover posters (with lots of room to grow). As is so often the case, it was Mr. Jennsen’s idea, because he's awesome.
By the way, has anyone seen our hardbacks of 2001 and Rendezvous With Rama? Maybe on the side of the highway somewhere Those are literally the only 2 items that we lost in the move from Montana-with-a-layover-in-an-apartment-and-storage-unit. (We finally gave up searching and ordered replacements, so they're in the pics - but those aren't the *right* copies....)
NOW it's a home.
Since many of you have inquired, the last 3 photos are zoom-ins of (1) science fiction, (2) near future scifi/cyberpunk, (3) science, computers and other nerdy non-fiction. Caveat: I've leaned pretty heavily on my Kindle these last 10 years, so my physical scifi collection is no longer as representative as I'd like it to be; I'll be working on rectifying that.
It was quite a week for aurora watching in the U.S. (and in many other parts of the world, I believe). The first wave hit here at my house Monday night, and I was so ecstatic to get to see them in person for the first time in my life! I stood in my front yard and took a couple of really terrible photos that I won’t share here, because….
A stronger solar flare let loose later in the week, and Thursday night was a show for the ages. Family and friends back home in Georgia even got to see them. I’d done a bit of reading on how to take better pictures, but honestly, they were so much stronger and more dramatic, I didn’t have to do much work.
These are still horribly amateurish photos, taken with my phone without a tripod, but they’re mine. :D
Did you get to see the northern lights this week? I’d love to see any pictures you took!
Here, have 3 gorgeous aurorae - and 1 Milky Way - by Larryn Rae. Originals here: https://x.com/shadowanshadenz/status/1835141576311685254. Check out his X feed for one stunning photo after another.
The library, that is! Forgive another round of house spam.
Cassi is confused, but enthusiastic about this project and eager to help.
At some point in the future, we'd love to do floor-to-ceiling built-in bookshelves, but that's for later. For now, we need a library, and our books that library will house. :)
Wait, this is not Montana...is it? I mean, there ARE mountains. But why is there a lake? And far less wood paneling? A thread in which I answer these questions and more.
Tl;dr: We've moved down the road to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho! (If you subscribe to my Buy Me A Coffee program and watch my livestreams, you already know this, but it’s new info for the rest of you).
The rest of the story: Actually, we moved a year ago. But we were camping out in an apartment while we built a house, and that was just so very uninteresting, I didn't mention it. But now things are exciting again.
First, why the move? A couple of reasons, but to encapsulate them, a beautiful view does not a life make (who knew?).
While wandering the woods was lovely, after a while I chafed against the isolation and lack of access to the trappings of modern life. #MrJennsen sucks at early retirement and, after two years chopping trees while wearing flannel , decided he was bored and wanted to get back in the engineering game. A series of frustrations when too much snow and impassable roads kept me from getting to the (distant) airport to travel for some family medical emergencies brought the problems into sharp relief.
Luckily, just a few hours down the road existed the equally lovely (if less wild) city of Coeur d'Alene. It, too, has mountains, rivers and lakes (Lake CDA is one of the most beautiful I've ever seen). But guess what it also has? Coffee shops and boutiques and theaters and a Best Buy and, well, people!
So here we are.
Now for a tour of the pictures!
1) My working space. The desk is a motorized standing desk, so I don't turn into a sloth while writing. No blinds? It's okay, they're getting installed tomorrow. That banner is just ridiculous, isn't it? #MrJennsen insisted on hanging it there. Swearz.
2) What I see when I'm *standing* at my desk. Gaming, comics, collectibles, science/space books, duplicates of some scifi books and, in the bottom right corner, a bit of a TBR stack. (Note: the rest of the scifi books will be going in the library - more on that soonish.)
3) The view out the window by my desk.
4) The bookcases on one wall of the main living room. I made a solar system out of my solar system glasses. :) (Close one, thermostat nemesis, but no dice! )
5 & 6) The view about 15 minutes down the road. I think it speaks for itself.
7) The patron saint of our home. Wherever Alex and Caleb live (in books), Akeso watches over.
Is this a good move? No, it's a WONDERFUL move. I have a feeling we'll stay this time.
And the first draft of THE UNIVERSE WITHIN is complete!!
It clocks in at 64,451 words, which is a hefty chunk considering all the [skipped scenes] and [vague notes and instructions] and [half finished chapters], lol. *motions at Alex and Caleb and all those rich, fully formed worlds and stories that burst to life wherever they go*
I don't think a story has come together this quickly since Abysm, which is really saying something. But boy, do I have a ton of work ahead of me. I was flinging brackets left and right as fast as I could type them, just to get the plot out of my head and onto the page.
So, yeah. Time to grab the fire extinguisher..
Well OF COURSE brain chips are going to replace phones. One of my safest "predictions," to be honest. And I love that the future is going to be weird!
““The Future is Going to Be Weird.” Elon Musk Predicts Brain Chips Will Eventually Replace Phones”: https://thedebrief.org/the-future-is-going-to-be-weird-elon-musk-predicts-brain-chips-will-eventually-replace-phones/
Not too shabby for 6 weeks after The Thief came out! This story is fire. Or on fleek, or lit, or whatever it is the kids are saying this week.
(It's probably not any of those things. 😂)
New hobby: collecting coffee mugs. In order to make the cut, a mug must meet two criteria: (1) it must be quirky or geeky, and (2) it must be giant - I am not sipping espresso over here.
My first acquisition was this awesome mug of one of my most favorite movies since I was a child! (I also have Jaws socks....) The size isn't conveyed very well by these pics, but it just might hold the big man himself.
A week short of her first birthday, Cassi says she's a grown-up girl now. (She’s not, but she is pretty wonderful.)
You guys rock (of course, I already knew this ). Despite only being out for 3 weeks, THE THIEF won 2nd place in Discover Scifi's Best Sci-Fi Books of 2024 (So Far)! I could not be more thrilled. I adore this book so much, and it makes me happy to know you all do, too.
You can see the Top 10 here: https://discoverscifi.com/the-best-sci-fi-releases-of-2024-so-far/
The next epic-sized Amaranthe trilogy is LITERALLY about the void physically manifesting - of course it's ok!
...
...
Right?
Wow. This book. (Forgive the ratty, beat-up mass-market paperback, but used bookstores are awesome.) Yes, it took me until now to read it, and I regret that delay.
Haunting, at times grim and depressing (so be warned - this is not high action/adventure), but also an achingly beautiful love letter to our precious blue marble and the equally precious humans who inhabit it.
My readers are the absolute best. THE THIEF has only been out for 2 weeks, but you've spoken up so much that it's now in the running for The Best Sci-Fi Book of 2024 (So Far) over at Discover Sci-Fi. And hey, Eren deserves every bit of recognition he gets (he would agree, I think).
If you're so inclined, head over and vote! https://discoverscifi.com/time-to-vote-first-half-of-2024-best-scifi/
It’s time for the occasionally annual celebration of the unofficial theme of the Amaranthe series:
This year, it struck me that this excerpt from INVERSION between Alex and Nika is rather on point.
Miriam wasn't on scene to exclaim "what have you done?" when Alex did this on Portal Prime in VERTIGO, but I'm pretty sure Caleb *thought* it, lol.
Of course, the answer to the question, "what have you done?" was "save everyone, obviously."
I wonder what utterly audacious stunt she's going to pull off in THE UNIVERSE WITHIN?
That's a wrap on another amazing MISCON (https://www.miscon.org/)! A huge thanks to Katie J Cross, the best friend and booth collaborator I could ask for, to Justin Barba for pulling off the herculean task of organizing a crazy, entertaining celebration, and to Robert Olson for keeping us all endlessly caffeinated and entertained. It was awesome to spend the weekend meeting readers, writers and fans of all things geeky, and hanging out with Kristine Endsley, Thomas Gondolfi, Hunter Cowles Wallace, Sanan Kolva, C E Chester, Grant Theron, and Peter Jones (I'm definitely forgetting some lovely people).
NOW, how about we do a "The Thief" launch this week?
(FYI: links are to Facebook profiles)
(1) All the rumors were true. The Fallout TV show was pretty great. Maybe a little weird for people who haven't played any of the games? Maybe not. Delightfully silly, absurd and fun. Violent, sure, but frankly not as much as I expected. Lucy was pitch-perfect, the Ghoul was the villain we all love to hate, until we just love him, and even Maximus grew on me by the end.
(2) Shogun was beautiful, heartbreaking and haunting, but also uplifting in the end. It pulled no punches about the culture and practices of historical Japan, yet somehow made you fall in love with the place anyway. It didn't try to "update" the story for our modern sensibilities. It's been a long, long time since I read the book, but my sense is, it stayed pretty close to the source material.
(3) Godzilla Minus One was...sweet! It felt like an homage to the old Japanese Godzilla movies in the best ways, and didn't let its cautionary themes about the toil war takes overwhelm its story of the importance of found family. And, you know, killing Godzilla.
(4) Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, though? Possibly one of the worst movies I have ever seen in my life. And I say this is an unashamed lover of terrible disaster and monster movies. It wasn't just nonsensical and boring. It was BAD.
Feel free to disagree with me on any of these! We all love (and hate) what we love (and hate).
First, a disclaimer: I doubt that any of these initial candidates will pan out. Striking gold the first time we pan for it seems unlikely; we'll likely need to both refine the process and develop even more powerful, refined instruments.
But, I think this is a superior way to conduct SETI research. The truth is, in order for a civilization to be advanced enough for us to find them across the vast distances involved, they're likely going to need to be able to construct Dyson structures.
Now, whether we want to attract the attention of a species so advanced is another question (interestingly, one I'll be talking about on a panel at MisCon next weekend!). But we should definitely be looking!
“A Study Suggests We Found Potential Evidence of Dyson Spheres—and Alien Civilizations”: https://www.popularmechanics.com/space/deep-space/a60780331/dyson-sphere-evidence-alien-civilizations/
“For more than half a century, scientists have wondered if searching for technosignatures like Dyson Spheres from super-advanced civilizations could help us discover intelligent life elsewhere in the universe.
Two new studies analyze data from star-gazing satellites to develop a framework for eliminating false positives or potential natural explanations in that search.
Each study found evidence that a handful of stars among the millions observed contain excess radiation that’s consistent with potential Dyson spheres and can’t be immediately explained away as a natural phenomenon.”
And if you want to deep-dive into the science of this research, here’s a piece on the always excellent and thoughtful Centauri Dreams blog: https://www.centauri-dreams.org/2024/05/18/seven-dyson-sphere-candidates/
