Jason Cordova’s “Corruptor” now available in “sneak preview” PDF format from Twilight Times Books
My friend Jason Cordova’s excellent Corruptor is finally available — albeit in PDF only and as a “sneak preview” — from Twilight Times Books.
A bit about Corruptor: it’s a near-future thriller that has everything — action, adventure, intrigue, corporate politics, games theory, and even some romance. It features a teenage girl as its main character, and the main problem she has is getting trapped in a computer game — but don’t let that fool you, as the game she’s trapped inside has multiple ways of losing, and only a few ways of winning, especially due to some in-game and out-of-the-game bad guys.
I read Corruptor a year ago and enjoyed it immensely; please go check out the PDF “sneak preview” at Twilight Times books.
Here’s the quote from their Web site:
Twilight Times Books is offering a sneak preview of several upcoming releases: Corruptor, SF/F by Jason Cordova
(rest snipped out, BC)
The above titles are available for purchase now as pdf arcs.
And here’s the link to the page you need so you can order Jason Cordova’s magnum opus:
http://twilighttimesbooks.com/ttb_arc_order.html
The link to Corruptor is about halfway down the page.
So what are you waiting for? Check it out already!
“The Fair at South Farallon” up at e-Quill Publishing.
Well, Lawrence got that story up in less than two days; he wrote the blurb himself, which I might have to tweak but am not going to worry about just yet . . . the story is a satire, and is about aliens, an odd contest that says it’s all about “story-telling” under a vague machine, but isn’t, and is most of all about friendship in the oddest of senses.
Betty and Karen are good friends, the type who’ve seemingly known each other forever. Yet Karen’s behaving out of character, and nothing at the Fair occurring on South Farallon Island out in San Francisco Bay is as it seems . . . will Betty figure out what’s going on before it’s too late?
At any rate, it’s fantasy/satire, mostly on the subject of unemployment and how many people are out there who are able to do much more than life gives ’em a chance to do. Note that I write a lot of satire, though this is the first piece I’ve written that has anything to do with the employment issue in this country.
This story isn’t as humorous as “Trouble with Elfs” or most of my stories, to be frank, but it’s definitely a satire — maybe that’s why I had so much trouble getting this sold. I tried at least 75 publications over the years, with two — two! — holding the story for a month or two, then releasing it when there was “no room” for it or they changed their mind about the story.
Here’s the link to “The Fair at South Farallon,” and I hope that you’ll give it a chance. If you do, I believe you’ll enjoy it.
http://www.equillpublishing.com/the-fair-at-south-farallon.html
Whatever you think, please come back and drop me a line, here, or at my Yahoo e-mail address which is barbcaffrey (all one word) AT Yahoo DOT com. I’d love to know people are reading my stories!
A Bunch of Stuff — new Publications, Yoplait Yogurt lids, and Brett Favre observation.
Well, I don’t have enough for a full blog post today, but I do have a lot of little things to discuss.
First, e-Quill Publishing has accepted an original story; for those of you who’ve known me a while, this story started as “Dream/Reality,” then became “Betty goes to the Fair.” It’s now entitled “The Fair at South Farallon,” I think — Lawrence at e-Quill liked that much better. I do not know when it will be available, but I am glad that it’s been accepted.
Second, I am writing a collaborative novella with Piotr Mierzejewski for e-Quill Publishing that’s titled “Iron Falls.” It is near-future military suspense; I’ve never written anything like this before, and have been doing a great deal of research. It is in Piotr’s world with Piotr’s characters; we’re still hammering out the plot. Two chapters have been written with a third on the way; estimated time for this story’s completion is late December 2010. (Lawrence is very confident and has already announced this at the e-Quill Publishing Web site. I would’ve preferred to wait until at least four chapters were completed. But now that the cat’s out of the bag . . . . )
Third, anyone who eats Yoplait yogurt knows that around this time of year, they start making all the lids pink for breast cancer awareness. My Mom is taking part in all that; it’s called “Save Lids to Save Lives.” So please, save your pink lids and send ’em to Yoplait down the road, OK?
Finally, my Brett Favre observation. I’m sure most if not all of you know Favre is in trouble due to some allegations made by two massage therapists working for the New York Jets and a “game hostess” also employed by the Jets. (I don’t know what a “game hostess” does. Sorry.) These were all attractive women, and Favre is alleged to have sent racy text messages to them and also to have sent naked “below-the-waist” pics. He also left voice mail messages for the “hostess.”
Look. Favre is a married man; his wife is the inestimable Deanna Favre, who has beaten breast cancer once (though it may return). They’ve known each other all their lives, have two children (one who is grown and has already reproduced, so Favre is the NFL’s only known player that’s also a grandfather), and have been married fourteen years. Their marriage has been strong, though there have been allegations in the past of Favre cheating on her — I’ve always thought that Favre loves Deanna like no other, but maybe has trouble being faithful to her, even though I could be wrong about all of it.
What I am sorry about is that Favre’s life is played out in public. These problems are difficult for anyone to deal with; infidelity is not easy for the non-cheating partner to have to deal with. And women, more than men, have to deal with this — it’s an awful situation even if it’s all happening behind closed doors. It is a thousand times worse, it seems to me, to have all this happen in the public eye.
Favre is a major, big-time player with many NFL records; he’s still playing at 41 and is still highly competent as a QB (though it seems to me he now has to pick his spots; last night’s game against the Jets, where Favre played a good fourth quarter but the first three weren’t good at all, is a case in point). He has the consecutive games-played record — not just for quarterbacks, but for all NFL players — and is considered the “iron man” of professional American football.
All that being said, he’s a man like any other. And his faults seem to be remarkably similar to many other men; he apparently has a wandering eye, and now his marriage may be in major trouble.
I believe the publication Deadspin.com, who has reveled in these Favre allegations (even to the point of paying $20,000 for the voice-mails and “corroborating evidence”), is mostly to blame for all this. They don’t need to be muckrakers. Yet to get publicity for themselves, Deadspin.com has played this for all its worth — and I find that disgusting.
I would prefer that Brett Favre re-commit to his marriage, if indeed any of the allegations against him are true. Deanna Favre is a remarkable, strong, intelligent lady and she’s stood by him through many difficult times — including Favre’s Vicodin addiction in the ’90s. She deserves better treatment from her husband. And Favre really needs to learn that, at 41 years of age, he should appreciate the great woman he has and stop trying to re-live his youth or behave in a crass, classless manner. He’s not young; he’s a grandfather. He should set an example for his teammates and clean up his act.
New Book Review — Read “The Crucible of Empire,” as it’s Outstanding.
Folks, I just wrote a review at the “sister site” Shiny Book Reviews for Eric Flint and K.D. Wentworth’s excellent The Crucible of Empire. I had previously reviewed it at Amazon.com but I wasn’t comfortable with my review there, partly due to space limitations. At Shiny Book Reviews that isn’t as much of a concern; I now feel comfortable with my review of The Crucible of Empire and hope you all will read it.
Here’s the link:
But to sum up: if you love books that make you think along with appreciating the rousing space-battle action, you will love The Crucible of Empire. Can’t praise it highly enough.
Ken Macha out as Brewers manager; more on Brewers.
The Milwaukee Brewers, who finished with a 77-85 record, fired manager Ken Macha today by the simple expedient of not picking up his option for next season. Macha said here (http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/104276948.html):
“Nobody likes to be let go, but I understand baseball, too,” Macha said. “I’ve been around a long time and been through this stuff. I told (Melvin) this Milwaukee experience for me was tremendous.
“It’s too bad we didn’t win more games, but I appreciate him bringing me here. … The expectations were to put up more wins and we didn’t do that. That’s the game.”
Macha’s words were classy, especially as he found out he’d been fired last evening via the media rather than by his good friend, Brewers General Manager Doug Melvin. Macha continued:
“When you sit down and build your club … you really got to compare your club to the other teams that have won,” Macha said. “How do we stack up with say St. Louis? We signed Randy Wolf and LaTroy Hawkins. … Yeah we filled some holes, but are we on the same level with (Chris) Carpenter and (Adam) Wainright? So maybe the expectations were a little high but you still have to win.
“We lacked that No. 1 guy going out there. That’s my thoughts. If you could put someone at the top (of the rotation) and move everybody else down, you’d give yourself a much better chance to win.”
Now, this is something I, as a fan of the Brewers, said all year long. Yovani Gallardo is not an ace. He is a good pitcher and would probably be just fine as the second pitcher on the Brewers staff, but he is no ace. And Randy Wolf, who’s a fine number three pitcher, has too much pressure on him as a number two pitcher — all of those roles, ace, number two pitcher, number three pitcher, are clearly defined now in major league baseball, and the ace of the staff is expected to be the guy who shuts down the opposition no matter what’s been happening with the rest of the club. (In other words, if the Brewers had lost six or seven in a row and Gallardo’s turn was up, he was expected to keep the other team in check while he was out there and get the Brewers a better chance to win thereby. Gallardo can do this, but he mostly doesn’t — that’s why he’d be better as the number two pitcher on the staff because he’d have far less pressure on him thereby.)
Going on in Anthony Witrado’s blog from today’s Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:
Macha also acknowledged his trying relationships with stars Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder while noting that several other players he had good relationships with thanked him after yesterday’s season finale, including Corey Hart, Casey McGehee and Wolf among plenty of others.
Skipping ahead in the blog:
“If the effort wasn’t reciprocated, then there’s not a whole lot I can do about it. You can’t force guys to do that,” Macha said. “Some guys were open to discussion and some guys weren’t, I guess, but that’s the same with every club.
“I talked a lot to Ryan, almost every day, but he does his own thing. He’s going to do what he wants to do.
“With Prince, I think he had some issues this year to deal with, the contract probably being the main thing, and at times he was hard to talk to. I don’t know if there were any guys on the staff that talked a whole lot to him this year.
“Those are the two guys, but the rest of the guys it was all positive. I opened up to (Braun and Fielder) but you have to have a back and forth. The faces of the franchise, that’s what they are.”
After reading all this, while I remain convinced Ken Macha was always the wrong man for this job, I feel rather sorry for him. I’ve been in positions where I came into a job and wasn’t really given a chance, and it sounds like that’s exactly what happened between Macha and Brewers’ stars Prince Fielder and Ryan Braun, who were both extremely angry after Ned Yost was fired in 2008 with only twelve games remaining in the season. (For the record, I was, too. I liked Yost a great deal.)
Macha had nothing to do with Ned Yost’s firing whatsoever, but I think because he was known to be such good friends with Brewers GM Doug Melvin, those two players in particular never gave Macha much of a chance. But what really surprises me is that apparently no one could reach Fielder this year — which explains Fielder’s extremely poor year, where he dropped in home runs from 46 to 31, dropped in RBI from 141 to 83, and dropped in batting average from .299 to .261. Fielder is the Brewers clean-up hitter, yet he had the fewest RBI of anyone who batted in the top five of the Brewers batting order, as you’ll see by this quick list:
Brewers RBI leaders:
Casey McGehee, 104 (bats fifth) — .285 BA, 23 HR, .464 slugging percentage
Ryan Braun, 103 (bats third) — .304 BA (led team), 25 HR, .501 slugging percentage, .365 on base percentage
Corey Hart, 102 (bats second) — .280 BA, 31 HR (8th in league), .525 slugging percentage (led team)
Rickie Weeks, 83 (bats first) — .269 BA, 29 HR, 184 strikeouts (led team), .366 on base percentage
Prince Fielder, 83 (bats fourth) — .261 BA, 32 HR (sixth in league), .401 on base percentage (led team), 114 walks (led team)
Now that you’ve seen that list, here’s some more information. Corey Hart started the season on the bench because he’d had a horrible Spring Training; he played so well Macha had to play Hart, and eventually Hart not only made the National League All-Star team, he took part in the Home Run Derby as he was among the league leaders in home runs at that time. Corey Hart finished with career highs in home runs and RBI and greatly improved his defensive play in right field; pretty good for a guy who started out on the bench, eh?
Then there’s Casey McGehee, who in his second full season led the team in RBI. McGehee is a third baseman who was an older-than-average rookie last year that GM Doug Melvin picked up prior to 2009 — McGehee had been buried in the farm system of the Chicago Cubs, but was a good, solid hitter and Melvin knew it. Signing McGehee, who started 2009 on the bench and eventually became the starting third baseman, then continued on in that role in 2010, was probably one of Melvin’s best — and most unheralded — moves of the past two years.
The other three guys — Weeks, Braun and Fielder — were all expected to do well. But Weeks, in the past, had trouble staying healthy due to problems with his wrists that required operations; that he finished a whole season credibly, improved his defense, and led all major league lead-off men in RBI was impressive. Braun got hit on the hand by a fastball thrown by Braves pitcher Tommy Hanson early in the season, had a huge dip in all batting stats during the summer, but rallied to have his usual excellent year in RBI, batting average and on base percentage (this includes hits, walks, and getting on base via errors). It was only Fielder who had a rotten year, especially by his standards — and as Macha said, that’s probably due to contractual reasons as Fielder is eligible next year for arbitration, then is a free agent, so for the moment does not have financial stability assured. (That Fielder is a client of hard-nosed agent Scott Boras is another concern, but of course Macha would never mention that even though everyone knows it’s part of the problem. The Brewers offered Fielder $100 million for five years — $20 million a year — but Boras said that wasn’t enough. That didn’t go over well with Brewers fans at all, though no one blamed Fielder, a bluff, genial, good-hearted man, for Boras’s actions even though Boras works for Fielder, not the reverse.)
Since this will probably be my final blog about the Brewers for a while, I may as well give my end of the season awards now.
Brewers Most Valuable Player: Corey Hart (Casey McGehee, second) — this is because when the Brewers still had a shot to get back in the pennant race and everyone else slumped, Hart carried the team through much of May and June.
Rookie of the Year: John Axford, who took over the closing job from Trevor Hoffman and never looked back, going 8-2 with a 2.48 ERA, and saving 24 out of 27 games.
Brewers Most Valuable Pitcher: John Axford.
Comeback Player of the Year: Chris Capuano — Capuano’s stats of 4-4 with a 3.95 ERA in 24 appearances (and nine starts) are a little misleading, though they’re perfectly fine. As it stands, “Cappy” is the first player to effectively pitch in the major leagues after a second “Tommy John” ligament replacement surgery on his pitching arm. He also is a study in perseverence, as his second comeback required nearly two full years of rehabilitation. Capuano deserves serious consideration as major league comeback player of the year.
The Brewers had many good players who had fine years for them in 2010; they just did not jell as a team. Here’s hoping that next year, the Brewers will be much better and give the fans a great deal more excitement overall.
Updates on Past Blogs: Kratz out, Capuano finishes season.
Today I wanted to write a quick update about what’s going on with some of those who’ve been featured in my past blog entries.
First and best, Calumet County District Attorney Ken Kratz is now the former DA of Calumet County as he has resigned. As I’d previously written — and hoped would happen — Governor Jim Doyle (D-WI), who used to be the Attorney General of the state of Wisconsin before he was elected as Governor, had started the process to formally remove Kratz from office, which put an enormous amount of pressure on Kratz to resign. Doyle had said in this article from 9/21/2010 (http://www.htrnews.com/article/20100921/MAN0101/309220021/Wisconsin-Gov-Jim-Doyle-sees-Calumet-County-DA-Ken-Kratz-sexting-case-as-very-serious-issue-), which was widely covered by Wisconsin newspapers:
An outraged Doyle said Monday he would start the process to consider removing Calumet County District Attorney Ken Kratz and that he hopes to make a decision in a month. At a news conference five days after The Associated Press broke the story, Doyle said any prosecutor who would have behaved that way on his watch would have faced repercussions.
“I consider this to be a very, very, very serious issue,” said Doyle, a former district attorney and attorney general who leaves the governor’s office in January.
“It’s one that personally strikes to a lot of things I have worked very hard on in my career: crime victims’ rights and domestic violence. It troubles me deeply that somebody turns to the criminal justice system for help and receives the kinds of texts we have seen.”
And Gov. Doyle delivered, as Kratz, as of today, has resigned his position as DA. Kratz’s resignation was covered widely as well; one account of it is here at this link:
http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/article/20101004/GPG0101/101004091/1207&located=rss
Kratz’s resignation was quiet and done via press release, which stated:
“It is with deep sadness and regret that I announce my resignation as Calumet County district attorney, effective immediately,” Kratz wrote in a statement. “I have lost the confidence of the people I represent due primarily to personal issues which have now affected my professional career.”
I am very happy that Kratz is gone, and hope the people of Calumet County will now rest a bit easier with Kratz’s resignation.
Next, Brewers pitcher Chris Capuano completed his comeback season; as previous blogs have reported, left-hander Capuano came back this year from his second “Tommy John” ligament replacement surgery in his left arm and pitched effectively, going 4-4 with a 3.95 ERA in 66 innings, starting nine games and appearing in 24. The rest of his statistics are available many places, but I prefer FanGraphs.com, an excellent baseball resource site for the serious fan; here’s that link:
http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=1701&position=P
Capuano started his final game last Saturday and struggled against the Cincinnati Reds, giving up three runs, ten hits and a walk in 3 2/3 innings. After the game, a 7-4 loss (Capuano did not lose the game due to the Brewers offense tying the game at 4-4 in the seventh inning), Capuano said:
“It was a battle,” said Capuano. “It was one of those games when even when I had them hitting my pitch, they found holes. They hit a couple of balls hard.
“They never took the pressure off me, never really allowed me to settle into a groove. As a pitcher, you’re aware of the pace of the game (3 hours, 39 minutes). I was saying, ‘Let me have a clean inning. Let me move this game along a little bit.’ ”
But as Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reporter Tom Haudricourt said at this article (http://www.jsonline.com/sports/brewers/104209094.html):
Capuano wasn’t going to let the shaky outing tarnish the comeback season he enjoyed after sitting out two years following a second Tommy John elbow surgery.
He quoted Capuano, who said:
“Physically, I’m feeling great,” said Capuano, who is eligible for free agency. “That’s everything that I hoped for out of this year. I had an uphill battle today. They’re a good team; they have a good offense.
“I don’t know what to expect (on the market). I’m glad now I can take a rest from throwing. I really haven’t stopped throwing since this rehab program began.”
I’m very, very proud of Chris Capuano, and I’m glad the Brewers re-signed him to a minor league deal last year. Capuano is an outstanding example of patience, resilience and endurance, and I truly hope the Brewers re-sign him for next season as he’s shown he can still be an effective major league pitcher.
Open Season on the Widow(er): More about Debbie Macomber’s “Hannah’s List”
Before I start into today’s blog, I want to first point you to the book review I just did at Shiny Book Review:
I had a hard time containing my rage and frustration after reading Hannah’s List. There are so very many things wrong with this book — and all of them start with the premise: why would a man who’s grieving get a letter from his dead wife (written as she lay dying) asking him to remarry forthwith because he should have children — as if children are owed to him in her view — and then give a list of three disparate women who, in Hannah’s view, would make her husband Michael an excellent second wife?
Most if not all of you know I am a widow, and thus, Michael the doctor’s plight is not unknown to me. Anniversaries are hard — the first one in particular, but they never get any easier, and grief has its own cycle — one that doesn’t obey any time clocks — that the widow or widower must endure.
Doctor Michael Everett, the hero of Hannah’s List, has been grieving for one year — apparently author Macomber thought this was just much too long for a vibrant man in his late-thirties — and we’re supposed to believe that Hannah, his wife, is a selfless, caring, giving saint for finding three women she thinks will appeal to her husband to succeed her after her death.
Excuse me, but when did this woman die and become God(dess)? I mean, isn’t it up to Michael — the widower — to decide when or even if to date again? And certainly, if he had the sense to pick Hannah in the first place and she was so damned good for him, why wouldn’t Hannah realize that he still has that good common sense that led him to her in the first place, so he’s still capable of finding another good woman by himself? And that he doesn’t need to be led by the hand in order to find someone else?
Some of the feelings Michael the widower had in this book didn’t ring true to me, either. From page 318:
How well she knew me, how well she’d known how I’d react once she left this world. But for the first time since I’d lost her, I felt not only alive, but — to my complete surprise — happy. I saw now that her letter had freed me; it’d given me permission to live. The letter, with her list, was a testament of her love.
Once again, we have the saintly Hannah, and the barely-thinking, barely-able-to-reason Michael — who is of all things a doctor and should understand at bare minimum what the grief cycle is all about — and I just don’t buy it.
Either this man had the sense he was born with to pick wisely once, so he can pick wisely a second time without being led by the hand, or he didn’t — but if he didn’t, he needs a lot more help than the manipulative, meddling Hannah could ever possibly give him.
There are not words for how much I profoundly disliked and despised this book, and I hadn’t expected to feel this way as I have enjoyed just about every other book Debbie Macomber has ever written — most especially the ones featuring scatterbrained angels Shirley, Goodness and Mercy. Those are funny, heartwarming and even healing books that make me laugh and think.
But all Hannah’s List made me think was this: open season on the widow(er). Because apparently Ms. Macomber does not believe a widow, or widower, can think for him or herself and must be led, kicking and screaming, back into life by the first available man (or woman, or alien, or whatever) who’s willing to take an interest before it’s too late.
Humph!
Two New Book Reviews up at Shiny Book Reviews sister site.
Folks, I have been writing up a storm this week. First I finished getting onto paper the 11,000+ words of my Writers of the Future story (can’t tell you the title or I’ll be immediately disqualified), then I started going over my and Michael’s stories that are currently up at e-Quill Publishing in order so they can be submitted to Smashwords (Lawrence, publisher of e-Quill, believes this will greatly improve the visibility and marketability of my and Michael’s writing and I sincerely hope he’s right), and finally, I wrote two new book reviews tonight for this blog’s sister site, Shiny Book Reviews.
The two new reviews are for Alison Weir’s excellent history Queen Isabella and Michael Schaffer’s satirical and pointed One Nation Under Dog: America’s Love Affair with our Dogs. These were both excellent, intelligent and engrossing books that I heartily enjoyed reading; it was a pleasure reviewing them.
At any rate, here are the direct links to those two new reviews:
Alison Weir review:
Michael Schaffer review:
Go read ’em! You’ll be glad you did. (Or at least I will.)
Furiously trying to finish a story for WotF
My blog once again has been suffering this week, partly because I’m doing my best to finish a story in time for the 9/30/10 deadline for the Writers of the Future contest. I have done a great deal, but I still have at least three or four more solid hours of work to go, providing the story continues to hold together — only then can I send it off with a clear conscience.
I don’t know how much longer I’ll be eligible for WotF, as once a novel (not a novella, a full-fledged novel, something over 60 K words) is published with my name on it, I will be ineligible. This could happen soon; I am holding a positive thought. Which is why this particular quarter might be the very last time I am definitely eligible for the contest . . . and it’s why I am working as hard as I can to bring a story together, so I can say I entered every quarter I had something ready until I was declared ineligible.
I suppose I should give some context here. My first entry into the Writers of the Future contest was the Winter quarter of 2002 — which is their first quarter, the end of December deadline. And I have entered more often than not ever since, mostly entering stories I’ve written alone, but sometimes entering co-written stories. I’ve never received an honorable mention, much less semi-finalist or finalist status, yet thousands of people enter the WotF contest every quarter, and I know the only way to win a prize (they give three) is to enter. Which is why despite how frustrating it’s been over the years to never get any recognition at all, I have kept at it.
Basically, to be eligible for WotF, you have to have three stories or fewer published — full credit stories in magazines that have circulations of over 5,000 people, or at an online publication where your story has received 5,000 hits. The places that are known to meet this criteria are those that are Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America-eligible also — some of those include the Grantville Gazette, the Intergalactic Medicine Show, Strange Horizons, Apex, Fantasy magazine, the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Asimov’s, and Analog. As I have only one-half a story credit by that measure (I’ve sold three stories, all co-written with my late husband Michael; two of them do not count by WotF standards as they do not meet SFWA guidelines of 5,000 circulation or 5,000 hits), I would only become ineligible when I either sold three stories on my own (or six more co-written stories with Michael or anyone else), or if I published more than one novella (so far I haven’t any novellas), or more than one novelette (only one of my stories, co-written with Michael, is even close to that), all with a full credit. But a novel, whether it’s co-written or not, will immediately disqualify me no matter what — and something I’m working on now may go over the 60K word count and be published sooner rather than later.
At any rate, that’s what I’ve been up to, along with researching two different, disparate stories (one being the fourth “Columba” tale, which I discussed last week); that leaves very little time available for my blog.
But as soon as I have something that interests me after I’ve completed the story for WotF, I’ll be blogging away again — no worries about that. So watch this space, as I might just surprise myself.
Barb Caffrey's Blog 