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Free Novel Saturday: Star Song, Chapters 20 & 21
Every Saturday I post a chapter or two of my young adult science fiction novel Star Song. Coming in in the middle? The whole thing starts here with Chapter 1 and an explanation. Enjoy! Star Song By Edward Willett Chapter 20 That night Kriss took up the touchlyre for the first time since leaving Farr’s World. He uncovered the instrument and let it float freely, slowly spinning, in the centre of his cabin, watching the light play across each surface, glowing in the polished wood, shining on the burnished copper, glittering off each ...Free Novel Saturday: Star Song, Chapters 18 & 19
Every Saturday I post a chapter or two of my young adult science fiction novel Star Song. Coming in in the middle? The whole thing starts here with Chapter 1 and an explanation. Enjoy! Star Song By Edward Willett Chapter 18 When he woke Kriss felt almost like himself again. He figured out how to use the zero-G shower, though he couldn’t say he liked the way the water, drawn by the suction of a fan beneath his feet, crawled down his body. Nevertheless, he emerged from it feeling quite human. His ...A sneak peek at Masks
That gorgeous cover, by Paul Young, will grace my next book from DAW, Masks, written under the pseudonym E.C. Blake. I just got it this week, and now I'm doubly excited about the book coming out. Here's what DAW has come up with for the book jacket flaps (Masks is coming out in hardcover, my first hardcover novel, so it actually has flaps). Now all I have to do is live up to it! Masks, the first novel in a mesmerizing new fantasy series, draws readers into a world in which cataclysmic events have left the Autarchy of Aygrima—the one land blessed with magical resources—cut off from its former trading partners ...Not enough readers, not enough time: the end of my regular science column (for real, this time)
All right, this time it’s for real: I’m pulling the plug on my weekly science column (I haven’t written one for about a month anyway). And it’s all MailChimp’s fault. MailChimp is actually a great way to send out nicely formatted HTML newsletters, and I’m very glad to use it for that purpose. However, MailChimp also allows you to track how many of your nicely formatted HTML newsletters are opened by your putative subscribers, and in the case of the science column, it’s not pretty. I currently have 457 subscribers to my science column. When I was sending out the column as just an ordinary email, I could justify spending the time on ...Aging my heroine, fulfilling my pledges
As I noted last week when I made my excuses for not blogging very much, one of the tasks keeping me occupied was rewriting Masks, the first book in my upcoming trilogy for DAW (under the pseudonym of E.C. Blake). This was an interesting pass through the manuscript, because its main purpose was to change the age of the central character, Mara, from thirteen to fifteen. In addition, I completely rewrote the beginning of the book, adding quite a few new scenes from Mara’s childhood that hopefully will set up the story’s situation better and develop the character more fully in the minds of the (no doubt millions...millions!) of readers. The “aging” process went very well: I didn’t have to change much at ...The traditional “Blog post about why I’m not blogging much”
I know, I know. I post about getting a cat and then I fall silent, which can lead to only one conclusion: the cat ate my blog post. Not quite true, although Shadowpaw (Look! Another cat photo! Because there’s such a shortage of those on the Internet!) is sitting on my lap as I type this, purring and quite insistent I pet him. (It’s actually amazing how well I can type with cat legs sprawled across the backs of my hands.) My real reason for not blogging: I’m in a bit of a crunch trying to get another rewrite done of Masks (wearing my E.C. Blake hat) because things are moving ahead to ...My introduction to science fiction for non-SF audiences
I’ve occasionally been called on to talk to various groups—teachers, librarians, others—about science fiction. It’s an interesting challenge, since you can’t be sure that your audience knows the first thing about the topic. I start, of course, by establishing my bona fides: talking about my own writing and publications. Then I go on to say something like this... First, I need to deal with the question, “Why do you write that stuff?” It sometimes seems that, like Rodney Dangerfield, SF "can't get no respect." Though the situation is better than it once was, there has been a well-documented tendency over the years for "serious," "literary" writers, editors and critics to look down on science ...You got fantasy in my reality!
The latest installment in my "The Space-Time Continuum" column on science fiction and fantasy that appears in Freelance, the newsletter of the Saskatchewan Writers Guild; inspired, as you will see, by a panel I attended at the World Fantasy Convention in Toronto. There are, broadly speaking, three kinds of fantasy tales. There is the kind where both the setting and the characters ar fantastical: that is, the world is a fully-imagined fantasy world and the characters belong to that world (The Lord of the Rings). Second, there is the kind where a character or characters from our world find themselves in ...The tangled tale of how my YA fantasy Spirit Singer was born, died, and is being resurrected
Let’s step into the wayback machine, and set it for the turn of the century... In that long-ago time, ebooks were in their infancy. There were dedicated ebook-reading devices, but practically nobody had them. (Although I did: a Hiebook. Read a lot of David Weber on it through Baen’s free ebook library.) There were ebook publishers, but practically nobody had heard of them. Print-on-demand technology existed, but was not in widespread use. It was in that environment that I, with my usual impeccable ability to time things badly, decided to experiment with ebook publishing. I had a finished novel, a good one, I thought, a young adult fantasy called Spirit Singer. I ...Free Novel Saturday: Star Song, Chapters 3 & 4
In the spirit of Christmas generosity, today I'm posting TWO chapters of Star Song. Coming in in the middle? The whole thing starts here with Chapter 1 and an explanation. Enjoy! Star Song By Edward Willett Chapter 3 The rain soaked Kriss to the skin before he had gone twenty steps down the road that seemed to lead most directly to the inviting sounds. Shivering, miserable, he hardly noticed when a passing groundcar splashed him waist-high. I should have spent more time with the lieutenant, he thought, his teeth chattering. All night, maybe. He hoped his backpack ...
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Magebane
“Spectacular” – Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Evil wizards, multi-level conspiracies, hidden kingdoms…Lee Arthur Chane…has done a marvelous job…Magebane is a very entertaining book and well worth the time.” – A.M. Donovan, Night Owl Reviews
I happily recommend Magebane and I’ll certainly give Chane’s next novel a try based on this one.” —Bill Capossere, Fantasy Literature
“…an original and delightful tale of epic fantasy and magic, steampunk science, adventure, tragedy, and love…” – Errant Dreams Reviews
Eight centuries ago, the world changed. A devastating war swept the lands, and the MageLords, who had long ruled by virtue of their spell powers, were driven to a distant place, separated from those they had ruled by a magical Barrier. With magic banished from the rest of the world, the MageLords became mere legend and people turned to science to improve their lives. But if one man has his way, all that is about to change….
Written as Lee Arthur Chane (the middle names of my older brothers, Jimmy Lee and Dwight Arthur, and myself, Edward Chane Willett).
Marseguro
Winner of the 2009 Prix Aurora Award for Best Long-Form Work in English
Water world Marseguro is home to the Selkies, a water-dwelling race created from human DNA. When an unmodified human seeks revenge on a Selkie by activating a distress beacon taken from the remains of the original colony ship, a strikeforce is sent from Earth to eradicate the genetic abomination. Yet Marseguro will not prove as easy to conquer as the Earth force anticipates…
Terra Insegura
Finalist for the 2010 Prix Aurora Award for Best Novel in English
Marseguro, a water world far from Earth, is home to a colony of humans and the Selkies, a water-dwelling race created from modified human DNA. For seventy years the colony has lived in peace. Then Earth discovers Marseguro, and a strike force is sent to eradicate this “abomination.” But Marseguro has created a genetically tailored plague to use against Earth’s Holy Warriors. With the enemy defeated, the people of Marseguro feel they are safe. But Chris Keating, the traitor who signaled Marseguro’s location to the Holy Warriors, has fled to Earth, unknowingly carrying the deadly plague within him. The people of Marseguro feel they must send a ship to Earth with a life-saving vaccine. Only time will tell what awaits them when they reach their destination.
Lost in Translation
Kathryn was a human empath whose world and life had been destroyed when the alien S’sinn slaughtered her parents before her very eyes. Jarrikk was a young S’sinn, an unproven warrior who’d seen his flight mates slaughtered by the humans who’d sought to colonize his world.
As humans and S’sinn found themselves on the brink of war, these two Translators had to work together to find a common ground and avert catastrophe. But whether their Translators’ oath and training could overcome the enemies leagued against them was very much in doubt…
Archives
Historic Walks of Regina and Moose Jaw
Ten walks to points of historic and architectural interest in the cities of Regina and Moose Jaw (eight walks for Regina, two for Moose Jaw).
Johnny Cash: The Man in Black
When country music legend Johnny Cash took the stage at Folsom State Prison in 1968, he solidified the public’s perception of him as a rebel who followed his own path. Born in Arkansas during the Great Depression, Cash endured poverty, the death of his older brother, and a difficult relationship with his father. He turned to gospel and country music to express the pain, and after many years of struggling, his songs of hardship and hope would finally reach the ears of those waiting for an artist who represented them, ordinary people fighting to survive.
Andy Warhol: Everyone Will Be Famous for 15 Minutes
“Paintings are too hard. Machines have less problems…” In the 1960s, Andy Warhol became the most famous creator of a new style of art called pop art, which transformed mass-produced items of popular culture into fine works of art. From Campbell’s Soup cans to photographs of Marilyn Monroe, Warhol’s willingness to use anything and everything from the mass media in his work expanded the range of subject matter available to artists. His avant-garde films, artistic usage of American icons, and unconventional social life made him a controversial figure, both greatly admired and deeply reviled. A trendsetter rather than a trend-follower, a dispassionate observer of both the seamy and celebrity sides of life, Warhol was a true American rebel.
Disease-Hunting Scientist
The true stories of six real disease hunters. Epidemiologists travel the world trying to keep us safe from deadly diseases—from high-tech labs in Canada to remote villages in Africa. Learn how these “disease detectives” are coming up with new ways to fight disease, and find out if you have what it takes to become an epidemiologist, too!
The Bounty Mutiny
The Bounty was a British ship visiting Tahiti in 1789 when some of the crew overthrew the captain, William Bligh, and set him adrift in a tiny boat with sailors loyal to him. The mutiny resulted in a number of trials–both of the men who mutinied and of Bligh for losing command of his ship. These fascinating events have been the source for numerous Hollywood movies, most recently The Bounty. The Bounty Mutiny: From the Court Case to the Movie explores the famous case and the movies it inspired.
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