Fans Pricing Saturday for November 10, 2018
Here are the links for today’s (11/10/18) fan’s priced books.
(Note: We request the price changes from Amazon on Friday evenings. Unfortunately, they don’t change all of the prices at one time. As of right now, two of the books have not yet been price changed to fan’s pricing.)
Star Trek Discovery: A Science-Fiction Review
Star Trek is any science-fiction junkie’s go to for feeling the beauty of our natural universe. Not only did Gene Roddenberry aim to bring a spark of intelligence to the final frontier, he sought to bring creativity.
The newest attempt at a classic has been brought to us by Bryan Fuller and Alex Kurtzman, and what an attempt they’ve made. Thankfully they both had experiences working on various Star Trek projects like Voyager and the J.J. Abrams movies.
Their experience really shows in how they approach this new series.
Does The Story Hold True To The Star Trek Standard?
Yes, and no. It’s pretty complicated so strap in.
We follow Michael Burnham, a science specialist turned mutineer as she becomes dragged into the affairs of the USS Discovery’s Captain Gabriel Lorca.
When you begin this intellectual and emotional roller coaster ride you hardly know what to expect. Humans and Klingons at war? Sounds like a recipe for a more action-packed Star Trek than previous read more…
EC019: Holi’s Savior, a Tale From The Kurtherian Universe – Part One
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This week we bring you Part One of Holi’s Savior, by N.D. Roberts. As you’ll hear during the open, we intended to have Nat on as our guest host this week, but the lengthy trip from the UK to Arizona put her a little under the weather. If all goes well, she’ll be with us next week.
Rhapsody For The Tempest
During the introduction, I mentioned that Rhapsody for the Tempest, book three in The Braintrust series was just released as an audiobook. You can grab your copy here if you don’t already have it in your audible queue.
Fans Write For the Fans Facebook links: Kurtherian Universe, and Oriceran Universe.
Here is the blurb for Renegade from Tales From The Kurtherian Universe, Book One.
Holi’s Savior, by ND Roberts
On the alien world Castellegia, brave young Holi fights for the survival of her ragged band of orphans. Who will save them from the green-eyed mutants who stalk the night? Justice calls upon Castellegia at the moment all is lost for Holi.
A story of strength, determination, and the softer side of everybody’s favorite benevolent dictator.
Each of the Fan’s Write books can be purchased at Amazon. read more…
The Death of Rick Grimes and What It Means for Zombies
Andrew Lincoln as Rick Grimes – The Walking Dead _ Season 9, Episode 5 – Photo Credit: Jackson Lee Davis/AMC
Spoiler Alert!
One of the greatest shows of all time just lost perhaps the best characters of all time. You see, the character Rick Grimes died on a recent episode of AMC’s The Walking Dead. He had what many consider to be a lackluster death by falling off a horse and encountering competing walkers.
What many fail to understand, is that his ordinary humanity and ability to die just like everyone else is exactly what people love about Andrew Lincoln’s fantastic character.
See, Rick Grimes falls repeatedly but gets back up. That’s why everyone loves him. The entire zombie genre is, in itself, asking the question of how much can a person take before giving up. That’s what’s lacking in a lot of modern television (Insert my jibe at reality television here) and why Rick Grimes will live on amongst one of the greatest characters of all time.
Think of Rick Grimes like Star Trek. Many don’t realize that the first Star Trek voyage only lasted three seasons. That’s because the characters of Spock and Captain Kirk were so counter-intuitive, that we as humans loved watching them.
I still get asked when making a logical judgment if I could add a little Kirk and not be so Spockish. That’s because each and every one of us has both characters living inside us. What makes the character of Rick Grimes so impressive is that one character can and does encompass both the good and bad of a person.
In that very first episode of The Walking Dead Rick Grimes was recovering from an injury incurred while working as a police officer. He could have stayed in bed and not encountered his first Walker. Well, he didn’t. He led the charge and was the hero we all want. He single-handedly saved humanity.
Many are asking what will happen to The Walking Dead now that Grimes is gone? I hate to break this all to you, but The Walking Dead was at its end anyway.
You could try Eli Roth’s new show that showcases horror, but it won’t be the same. Your best bet is to stay tuned for the new Wheel of Time series coming to Amazon https://lmbpn.com/the-streaming-of-wheel-of-time/. We will have the latest as this series goes into production.
Yes, Grimes is now in the history books.
Yes, audiences will need to find a new show to watch.
Yes, The Walking Dead will not be the same without Andrew Lincoln.
Not only did the production team of The Walking Dead do zombies, but they did them well. So well, in fact, that this series will live on as one of the greatest shows ever made. Take that Game of Thrones! I love Game of Thrones nearly as much as The Walking Dead and I know the last season of Game of Thrones is coming like winter.
See, zombies have been around as long as people have told stories. They have had many faces but the object has always been the same: they want to destroy humanity and despite their mission, a hero will save us.
Rick Grimes was the hero we all have living inside us that we all long to truly be. He wasn’t just an anti-hero, he was a hero we loved and ultimately lost. Still, Lincoln’s magnificent character will soon be known as one of the greatest heroes in history. We all had a chance to see the magnificent way he was written and the stellar way Andrew Lincoln portrayed him. The Walking Dead will live on and not like zombies. It will live on as a masterful drama, not a den of brain eaters.
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Tammy Marshall is an award-winning journalist with more than 20 years of writing. If you really want to get her on a subject, bring up Star Trek. She loves talking about traveling through space and what Gene Roddenberry’s vision did for science. When she’s not plotting interstellar travel, she’s digging in the dirt. Her vegetables are legendary and her chickens have won awards. When her hands aren’t in the garden, she’s traveling to conventions around the country hoping to inspire the next person willing to go to Mars and aid Elon Musk on his mission. https://www.amazon.com/Tammy-Marshall/e/B06XTT6DL6
I Sort of Want to Axe Past Sarah
When Michael and Steve had the idea that I’d narrate the audio for Everyone in LA is an Asshole, I was a bit nervous. However, I implicitly trust their business judgments and agreed that it made a lot of sense, since I’m the author.
In the past, I’ve always hired professional narrators who could do accents and articulate words smoothly. I don’t consider myself a voice actress in the least, but I didn’t think that narrating would be so hard. Well, guess what? Reading is fucking hard.
I think I took for granted the work that goes into narrating a book. All of a sudden, I had to worry about my breathing. You don’t want to breathe too much or in the wrong places or it makes the reading choppy. And don’t forget to breathe period or you’ll pass out!
I was only about ten percent into recording the book when I realized I wanted to go back and kill my past self, who wrote the book. There were several places where I talk about all these names and words I can’t pronounce. When I got to these places, I was like, “Are you fucking kidding me, Sarah?”
And so, karma is a bitch. I sat in the studio for an hour, forced to learn how to pronounce a series of words which I’d picked out and put into the book because they were impossible to say. This was doubly hard for me since phonetics is not my strong suit. Hooked on Phonics didn’t work for me, so there.
When I’m talking to my friends, I can easily slip into an accent, making fun of Valley girls or my kinfolk from Texas. However, with the microphone sitting in front of me, I for some reason, couldn’t do any accents. I’d practice. Get it all good. Hit record and then sound like a drunk southern who was half Australian. The pressure of that red recording button was too much for me.
I’m a writer for a reason, I realize now. Performing is tough. It’s nice to hide behind my written words. However, I also found the experience to be incredibly rewarding. Reading what I wrote, brought me closer to the book, and right in time before the release. I had written all the words, but when I was given the opportunity to perform the voices, I felt instantly more bonded to the work.
All in all, the experience was positive. It gave me a new appreciation for voice actors and actresses. It gave me an appreciation for my book, bringing it to life in a new way. And it challenged me on a whole new level. Now as I go onto write the second book in the series, I’m careful to use only words that I know how to say and none of those damn tongue twisters I put in book one. Seriously, saying the phrase, “roasted lamb neck shawarma and foie gras halva” nearly broke me.
The audio is in post-production now, but I look forward to sharing it with you all. Thanks for the support. You all make this more fun!
Grab your copy of Sarah’s book Everyone In LA Is An Asshole today at Amazon.
Streaming Highlights for November
I’ll admit it. I stream the Colbert Show and Murphy Brown. Those two shows are reboots (David Letterman) the original Murphy Brown. When those shows came on I said I would stay up for the Colbert Show and Thursdays would be my night for television. Well, I was wrong. That’s because I like the convenience of streaming. In fact, if it doesn’t stream, chances are I don’t watch it. I’m not proud of this. I just don’t like staying up or being chained to watching television at a certain time.
That’s right, I like the luxury of streaming television. I am not really interested in celebrity interviews and I won’t watch television at a specific time. During college, I started streaming and just can’t stop. I did try. Well, instead of fighting it, I’m just going with it. That’s why I stream my television. I just can’t go back to watching television at a specified time. Here’s a list of what I’m watching this November. Our team collated the coolest shows coming to your streaming service. We did the work, you can just stream and enjoy. I listed them from my favorites to my least favorites.
Hulu
November 1
Amelie –This masterpiece of cinema by Jean-Pierre Jeunet stars Audry Tautou. Amelie tells the story of a young woman who gets a jumpstart on life by adding a little bit of fantasy. Never underestimate the awesomeness of French cinema. Some of the best films have come from France. Just ask Inglorious Bastards director Quentin Tarantino. He’s utilized many items from notable French films.
The Faculty – Yes, this epic move got made because of the financial success of Scream. Still, this film starring some major names owns its own for being a great movie. The performance of Jon Stewart alone makes it worth watching.
Pleasantville – Tobey Maguire and Reese Witherspoon star in this wonderful movie about how imagination can transcend a questionable past. Yes, the ‘50s were great for a specific population. Everyone else took turns playing servant.
James Bond movies – James Bond is its own genre. Yes, there’s more fantasy than science fiction. If you really want to get into the science fiction look at all the cool gadgets he gets to take on his kills. Many of the objects became the norm after a showing in a Bond film. No one actually knows a 007. There’s a reason he’s licensed to kill. The films A View to Kill, Die Another Day, Diamonds Are Forever, Dr. No, For Your Eyes Only, From Russia with Love, Goldeneye, Goldfinger, License to Kill, Live and Let Die, The Living Daylights, The Man with the Golden Gun, Moonraker, Never Say Never Again, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, The Spy Who Loved Me, Thunderball, Tomorrow Never Dies, The World is Not Enough, and You Only Live Twice will be streaming.
Available November 10
Big Hero 6 – In the future, we will need a team of heroes to help fight off the robots Elon Musk thinks will take over. This film shows a team. It’s also a great movie.
Available November 18
Hero – This awesome martial arts movie came out in 2002. It’s been hailed as one of the best martial arts movies of all time. Take that Bruce Lee
Amazon Prime
Available November 1
Child’s Play – When I was a kid creepy dolls could come to life and kill you. Plus, Wil Wheaton really showed off some of his mega-acting chops. Chuckie came from this movie and the world will never be the same.
Excalibur – If you don’t know the story of King Arthur than you must stream this film. This story is as old as time and discusses a utopia read more…
New LMBPN Books coming October 29 – November 2
Five new books coming your way this week, one of which is already available, and a second that can be pre-ordered today.
Ganked In Space – Available now!
Extermination just got a whole lot more fun.
When lifelong friends Reggie, Joel and Cody, fail to win the Virtual Reality Elite championship, they’re forced to find real work. The guys sign a pest control contract, ridding space stations of infestations.
ShimVens have been spreading rapidly across the galaxy.
The bugs eat through wiring, destroying space stations and ships.
Reggie took the job because the pay was good and the work sounded easy. Cody and Joel are skeptical, but Reggie convinces them it’s easy work. Just spray the bugs and done, right?
Not exactly.
They soon learn these pests are deadly. They’ll have to rely on their gaming skills if they are to survive.
And they’re going to need better weapons. Oh, and a mercenary who knows how to kick ass.
These three immature guys go off to save the universe…all by accident.
Men in Black meets Ghost Busters. Intergalactic Pest Control will have readers hooked from the beginning.
The Artifact Enigma (Tuesday)
CIA agent Daniel Winters is on a mission to keep two worlds safe; he just needs to bring a guy back from the dead first.
To most, Daniel is the charming owner of an oddities shop he inherited from his grandfather.
But looks are deceiving.
Charged with keeping the worlds safe—from magicals and humans alike—Daniel leads a double life, leaving no room for anything—or anyone—else.
When a relatively straightforward mission takes a turn, it plunges him into a dangerous new world where no one can be trusted.
He must live a lie within a lie while he works from the shadows to keep the worlds safe from a deadly new threat.
Everyone has their limits.
Will Daniel survive being pushed past his?
James Bond meets Harry Dresden in this action-packed paranormal thriller that’ll keep you guessing until the last page.
Defender – Book 6 In the Vigilante Chronicles (Wednesday)
Barnabas returns in the sixth book in his series, the Vigilante Chronicles
Barnabas may not be Ranger One anymore, but one thing definitely has not changed: when someone screws over the powerless, Barnabas is going to bring the pain. With a bloodthirsty AI running his advanced spaceship, those who love evil should start looking over their shoulders.
Everyone In LA Is An Asshole (Thursday) Pre-order available now.
LA is a beast. A city that swallows most with its glamour and glitz.
Not Sarah Fuller though.
Stubborn and relentless, Sarah refuses to be changed by her surroundings. Often, she takes a cynical approach, judging the world around her, though never taking anything too seriously.
Thrown back into the dating arena in her late thirties, Sarah encounters brand new challenges.
Readers will laugh out loud at the adventures and mishaps this sassy protagonist gets herself into. She explores LA life, seeing it through her unique lens.
Hair extensions, goat yoga, socialites and all the strangeness that comes out of LA weave together in this crazy, episodic adventure.
Can you handle the absurdities?
Scroll back up and hit the ‘Read Now’ or ‘Buy’ button and laugh until you can’t see.
Fans of Chelsea Handler and Sex in the City will love Everyone in LA is an Asshole, a series that doesn’t hold back and says what we’re all secretly thinking.
Redemption (Friday)
Katie and Pandora return in War Of The Damned, book number eight.
The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina – A Review
Based on the hit Archie Horror comic series Written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (Riverdale, Afterlife with Archie, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark), The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina dropped it’s 10-episode Part One on Friday, October 26. This darker retelling of everyone’s favorite teenage witch is an interesting take on the world of a character that had been prior to this series, light and carefree, uninterested in modern takes. While the horror is definitely there, the show does retain much of its own kind of humor without terror or jump scares, making for very enjoyable viewing.
While the comic book is set definitively in the era of the character’s original inception in the sixties, the show has a more ambiguous take on its temporal setting, long enough ago to still have house lines and no computers to speak of, but without much of the problematic features that plague an unvarnished look at the American past. Those elements that remain are exhibited by side characters you aren’t supposed to care about, while the main characters are widely diverse.
The show is, of course, about the eponymous Sabrina Spellman (Kiernan Shipka), a half-witch half-human who is a few days out from her sixteen birthday, which is, of course on Halloween. On that date, she is to take her dark baptism, signing her name read more…
Ganked In Space – Snippet
Extermination just got a whole lot more fun.
When lifelong friends Reggie, Joel, and Cody, fail to win the Virtual Reality Elite championship, they’re forced to find real work. The guys sign a pest control contract, ridding space stations of infestations.
SNIPPET 1
Sonic Shuttle, En Route to Sector 12 Transgalactic Station
Reggie looked around the ship proudly. He was a freaking entrepreneur. An independent business owner. The salt of the galaxy’s economy. An intergalactic pest control expert. He might have been sitting on a plastic bucket, in a postage-stamp sized galley watching his friend murder a defenseless oxygen regulator, but for him, life couldn’t get any better.
Joel was bent over his workbench, which was actually the dining table in the galley, halfway through putting the oxygen regulator back together. His wavy, brown hair dangled forward just reaching the upper edge of his vision. He brushed it aside, leaving a smudge of thick, black goo across his forehead. It complemented his forest green eyes nicely.
His fingers, like the rest of him, were quick and agile, adjusting small parts with confidence.
Cody walked into the room looking for a snack but was disappointed to find Joel hard at work in the spot where he wanted to eat. He knew there was no point arguing about it—Joel worked wherever he found space. But Cody couldn’t help but notice the handful of regulator pieces still sitting on the table.
“You do know we need that to breathe, right?” Cody asked, pushing his thick glasses up on his nose and indicating the device. His fine blond hair looked like a small heap of straw on top of his head, and he swung his lanky arms when he talked, gesticulating like an Italian grandmother. It could be dangerous to stand too close to him.
He set about searching the cabinets for something to eat, ultimately settling on some freeze-dried meat substitute.
Joel scoffed. “If it works just fine without those pieces, then why have them in the first place? I’m just making it more efficient.”
“If it works?” Reggie questioned. He shuffled to get more comfortable on top of the overturned five-gallon bucket at the back of the room, near the sink. They only had three chairs on the entire ship and moved them from place to place as needed. The two chairs that Joel wasn’t using were in the lounge, and Reggie didn’t feel like fetching one. His large, athletic body barely fit on the bucket; he looked like a Great Dane trying to sleep in a cat bed.
“It’ll be fine,” Joel said, undeterred.
The guys, or ‘Notches’ as they affectionately referred to themselves, had been on the ship for two days now. No jobs. Nothing to do. Totally bored. If they didn’t find something to do soon, Joel would end up taking the entire ship apart.
That’s when Reggie decided to remind them of the one surefire thing he knew would occupy their time and keep them out of trouble.
“Remember Deep Space Death Match?” he asked.
The name drew a gasp of nostalgia from Joel and Cody.
“We were so good at that game,” Reggie continued.
“Were?” Joel said. “We’re still so good at that game. There’s just no one to play against anymore; everyone plays Team Hollow Point now. Death Match was way better.”
“Totally,” Cody added. “The graphics are better. The story is far superior…no one cares about the story anymore. And the fucking microtransactions.”
Joel and Reggie both groaned.
“I hate them so hard,” Reggie said. “And the players are so vulgar. There can still be friendly competition without all the swearing. It’s all ‘F this’ and ‘F that.’”
“Yeah,” Joel said, smiling over the edge of his tinkering project. “What the fuck is up with that?”
Reggie threw a balled-up rag at Joel, who swatted it away. “Seriously?” Reggie said. “How do you guys eat with those potty mouths?”
“Jesus, Reg, you sound like a seventy-year-old woman sometimes,” Joel teased. He set the oxygen regulator on the table and wiped the sweat from his forehead, leaving a second streak of thick, black goo across his brow. “But, damn, what a great game.” He stared off like he was looking into the past. “If we’d played Death Match in the championships, we would have been top ten for damn sure.”
“No doubt,” Reggie said. “None of the current VRE teams could stand two rounds against us. We’d smoke all of them.”
Cody pulled a stray thread from the sleeve of his shirt and snapped it off, looking at it appreciatively. “Have you seen the top team’s siege dynamics?” He wound both ends of the thread around his forefingers. “They’re garbage. All show. Barge into a building, guns blazing. No tactics. No finesse.” He took the thread and slipped it between his two front teeth and began flossing. “It’s insulting.” read more…
EC018: Renegade, a Tale From The Kurtherian Universe – Part Two
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This week we deliver the conclusion of Renegade, from Erika Everest. If you didn’t hear part one, and our chat with the author, you can get caught up here.
Life Goes On
During the blessedly short introduction, I mentioned that Life Goes On, TKG 21 was just released as an audiobook. You can grab your copy here, if you don’t already have in your audible queue.
Fans Write For the Fans Facebook links: Kurtherian Universe, and Oriceran Universe. read more…