Category: Author

Issues related to my Published works as a writer, author, and organizer of writing workshops

The Hourlings Podcast—Episode 6: Developing Characters

TimeHorse December 9, 2020 No Comments

In this episode I mention my stint acting for my friend Shea. She wrote a cute series of situational comedy episodes taking place in a Zoo. My character was a rival animal husbandry expert from the local aquarium, and my character didn’t like the land-loving animal tenders one bit. I don’t know if it will ever be released, but I did get an IMDB credit out of it.

In this episode, I also talk a lot about Project Kronosphere. I recently decided to novelize the series and was excited to talk about the Kronosphere cameo in my story Let’s Kill John A. or John Wilkes Booth Must Die. I’m excited to get this project started and hope to work on an episode over the weekend!

The Hourlings Podcast—Episode 6: Developing Characters: Another Finely Structured Meeting

I really enjoy working on these episodes but I have been concerned with how long they are. This one was 75 minutes and other episodes have been about the same. We therefore agreed to make a change to how we release the episodes. Stay tuned to this page and keep watching Channel 137!

SARS-CoV-2: The Vaccine

TimeHorse December 8, 2020 No Comments

I did a science. Back on 11 March, I told you about the virus that now is ubiquitous in our modern consciousness. We had the genome of the Virus sequenced as soon as January and I was already speculating that the vaccine would be faster than any vaccine ever in history because of it.

The interesting thing I didn’t expect is for someone to go from matching a viral protein in the B-cells and T-cells. I never expected we could develop a vaccine that is purely the Messenger RNA (mRNA). Why I’m not clear how you could get such a vaccine into the cellular production machinery, it’s clear if you can, that you can have your own body’s cells produce the protein markers that your immonolocal system can match. Of course, the other potential issue is, if you do have one of your cells producing this viral protein then what’s to stop your immune system from targeting it?

Dr. Joe Hanson explains how one SARS-CoV-2 vaccine was created.

2020 has indeed been quite an unexpected year. When I first created Project Kronosphere, back in 1999, I set it in 2010, which was still a ways off. When we started to approach 2010, I moved it to 2020. Now that it’s 2020, I’m kind of happy I didn’t set it then. There is no way I could have predicted the life-changing events of this year. But, I was able to predict the expedited vaccine development, which makes me quite happy and hopeful. And Project Kronosphere is now set in 2030 and features a 67 year old Professor Rebecca Priestley. And though I have some screenplays in the Project Kronosphere Universe, I am about to start its novelization…

Project Kronosphere was always intended to be an education drama, and like the Professor, I hope you have learned something from this post here. Make good science, my friends!

The Hourlings Podcast—Episode 5: Happy Hour

TimeHorse December 2, 2020 No Comments

For fun, we decided to make our fifth episode about chewing the fat and spinning some yarns about what we write and how we get our ideas. Then again, maybe that sounded pretentious. After all, here I am talking about how I love #CO2Fre, my Tesla #P三D. But then, what folks don’t know I spent over a decade writing about electric cars on the Affordable Electric Car NOW site. I struggled and even had to quit my job to afford the car I drive now. It was through a lot of pain and suffering that gave me the chance to drive my dream car—or, more to the point, have my dream car drive me.

Of course, that’s all non-fiction, and these days I prefer to write fiction. Indeed, I’ve been writing published fiction since 2013, and I have so much more left to write.

Another Finely Structured meeting, if I do say so myself.

Anyway, have a drink with us, be it beer, whine, spirits, tea, or just plain Hydrogen Hydroxide, also known as water. Stay thirsty my friends and see you next week.

The Hourlings Podcast—Episode 4: Marketing Madness

TimeHorse November 25, 2020 No Comments

I was pretty excited about this episode as many of my writing friends are great marketers. Of course our host, Martin Wilsey is, my good friend Emma G. Rose is, my wonderful friend Stephanie Mirro is, and of course my dear friend C. J. Ellison is. I was all ready to sit this one out for all these great authors to talk about their marketing prowess, but alas, C. J. couldn’t make it so I was happy to step in and fill her lovely shoes. In the end, this TimeHorse thinks it turned out rather nicely!

Another Finely Structured meeting, if I do say so myself.

Now, go out there and buy more of my books! You’ve been marketed to; see you next week!

The Twelve Doctors and the TimeHorse

Doctor Who: 57 Years Young

TimeHorse November 23, 2020 No Comments
The Twelve Doctors and the TimeHorse
A version of the 50th Anniversary background with the TimeHorse Logo. Hence, some currently beloved Doctors are missing.

Today is Doctor Who Day, the anniversary of the first ever episode of Doctor Who. And seeing as it’s also the day that my Reston Writers’ Review meets, I decided I should try my hand a fan fiction once again.

Yes, I did say once again. In fact, my first ever written work was from when I was 14 or so years old, and a huge fan of the program. Colin Baker was the Doctor back then and his companion was Perpugilliam ‘Peri’ Brown. I wrote it to take place during the mysterious disappearance of the Roanoke Colony in Virginia (Modern North Carolina) and involved the Terrible Zodin, a character never appearing on camera, created by Terrance Dicks. Indeed, the character is only mentioned in two off-handed comments in The Five Doctors and Attack of the Cybermen.

For 2020, I wanted to use the Sixth Doctor again only this time with his second companion, Melanie ‘Mel’ Bush, a software engineer—and in my story, a cyber-security expert. I teamed her up with Yasmin ‘Yaz’ Khan and the Thirteenth Doctor. And for fun, I had them fight Missy, with cameos from all the other Masters. Of course, I did need one final cameo to make the multi-Doctor story complete. I added the Doctor’s Granddaughter, Susan Campbell and her husband David as well.

But, let me be honest. The story was total rubbish. I rushed to write the whole thing on my phone on Sunday night just to get it uploaded in time, and like my feeble attempt at a Halloween story with only 101 words, it sunk like a lead balloon. I guess I’m just not on my writing A-game these days. I just need to find the time… does anyone have a TARDIS!

EDIT 2020-12-10: Forgot to post this on Doctor Who day. It was originally scheduled for posting on Monday, 23 November, 2020. Sorry for the delay.

The Hourlings Podcast—Episode 3: Finding the Time

TimeHorse November 18, 2020 1 Comment

For this episode, I’m back, but our intrepid host Martin Wilsey was unable to attend so the Toastmaster extraordinaire David Keener to host us as we talk about how to find time between work, and home, and all the other things you have to do with life. Believe me, I barely even find the time to update this site, never mind write.

Another Finely Structured meeting, if I do say so myself.

I hope you find the time to watch it and keep writing. I hope to see you next week!

The Hourlings Podcast, Episode 2: World Building

TimeHorse November 11, 2020 No Comments

This episode of the Hourlings Podcast was one I could only contribute to in indirectly. We have a new YouTube channel, Channel 137—which I hope you will follow—and you may be wondering where the 137 comes from.

As an author, as well as a Physicist and Scientist, I have an affinity for the wonders of the physical world—and so does host Martin Wilsey. The number 137, or more specifically it’s approximate reciprocal, 0.007 297 352 569 3(11), which is about , is important to Physicists. It represents the Fine Structure Constant, ⍺, a ratio between the square of the Fundamental Charge and Planck’s Constant, the Speed of Light, and the Permittivity of Free Space:

The derivation of Alpha
This is the most common formula for calculating Alpha.

Originally, it was a was of defining the distance between spectral lines but has been found in many other physical properties. It’s quite a number!

Which is why we will be ending each meeting with a note about how it was so finely structured!

Another Finely Structured meeting, if I do say so myself.

Hope you enjoy the episode despite my lack of tales of intelligent octopuses and planetary colonists suffering technological attrition. Oh, well.

I’ll be back next week though so keep writing and hope to see you there!