Starship Fonzie

If you're one of those people who is really bummed out about J.K. Rowling going off the rails, there is a new and wonderful alternative out there that you MUST read. And if you're one of those who is not bummed about Rowling, read this book anyway. It's called "A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking." And it's awesome. T. Kingfisher is the pen name of Ursula K. Vernon, a wonderful and relatively new writer (since about 2005, or so), who started out as an illustrator and then branched out into literature. She adapted the pen name of T. Kingfisher to distinguish her more adult literature from her children's literature, taking a page from Ursula K. LeGuin (who once joked that the "K" in her name stood for Kingfisher). Like Harry Potter, this is a YA novel, but it appeals to adults as well. It's about a young girl named Mona, a fourteen-year-old girl with what seems to be a minor-level magical talent. She can work magic with bread. It's a u...

  Warning: Mild spoilers ahead. Fans are lamenting the end of one of the best sci-fi TV shows to come along in a generation. When SyFy cancelled it after its third season, Amazon Prime picked it up and continued the series for three more seasons. Amazon did so after a huge fan base lobbied hard for the series to continue. Not since Star Trek has a fan revolt of this nature resulted in a show continuing - and this puts The Expanse in VERY good company! The final season was only six episodes, and that's a disappointment on so many levels. Nevertheless, fans are saluting a job well done. Except I don't think the series is done yet. The television series ends with the dramatization of book six, along with the novella, "Strange Dogs." But there are three novels and two novellas still remaining. The reason most don't think these will be incorporated into the television series is because they are set thirty years after the ending of "Babylon's Ashes" - the ...

  Well, lo and behold, I have a story out there! It's available on Purple Wall Stories. Anybody interested in reading it and voting for it (please, please do!) has until January 10th to do so. And, FYI, voting means doing so by sending an actual email. You need to set up an account, then you get an email link. But if you set up an account and send an email from whatever email server you use, that's also acceptable. So long as you have a (free!) account set up with Purple Wall Stories. Also, you can vote multiple days. We are down to 7 days left as of this posting, that means you can vote each day up to 7 times! It would mean a lot to me if you did! Thanks! Eric