Not posting as much as I should

There hasn't been much to report, so I haven't been posting much. We're almost ready to release the Ephemeris RPG. The goal is still July 24th, and once we get the final artwork for the aliens, I'll be able to confirm that.

The hush hush project at Flying Pen Press is still rolling along. Hopefully we'll be able to make some more definite announcements about that in the next month or two.

Next week Sam's Dot Publishing will be releasing Wondrous Web Worlds Vol. 8...once again edited by me. The cover is absolutely gorgeous, and I can't wait to see the book.

That's about it for now...

Iran

As most of you probably know there was an election in Iran recently. All indicators were that it was going to be a close election, and yet the incumbent won in a landslide. Not only that, but hand written ballots were counted about as fast as the US can count their electronic ballots. I think anyone that looks at these facts can clearly see that the election was a fraud...and certainly some of the people that have seen that have been the Iranian people.

The Iranian regime claims that there are no protests in Tehran, and yet pictures that are coming out of the Iranian capital clearly shows tens, if not hundreds of thousands of people protesting. Meanwhile, the government cracks down on the protesters and people are killed.

Meanwhile, here in the US, the revolution is not being covered by the media like I'd expected it would. It seems to get a mention on the news, but the true story is not being told...and I have to wonder why.

It would seem that if you really want the truth about what's going on, you have to go to YouTube and Twitter. People caught up in the revolution are posting regularly, knowing that they will face sever repercussions if they're caught.

Here's a sample...



Let's hope that the Obama administration, and other governments throughout the world refuse to recognize the Iranian regime. For years, those of us in the United States have been wanting a regime change, but anyone with any intelligence knew that the change would have to come from within...and here it is!

And as for all the ignorant Americans who thought we should just nuke Iran because of the government's views, try to remember in the future that a government does not necessarily represent the views of the actual citizens. The people of Iran want change, and we should let them have it...

A Tuesday Update

We had our big meeting at Flying Pen Press to discuss the project we're working on. Everything is hush hush at the moment, but hopefully we'll be able to divulge the details in the next month or two.

Speaking of Flying Pen, tomorrow marks the release of Riders of the Mapinguari. David Rozansky, the publisher, will be hosting a release party on Twitter...so if you're on Twitter, simply follow #FeralWorld tomorrow. There will even be chances to win some copies.

I'm continuing to work on the finishing touches of Ephemeris. Hopefully we'll have some artwork soon, and then it will be time to send it off to the publisher.

I'm not really sure why I'm feeling so tired, but I feel like I haven't slept in days...

Keeping busy

Seems like this last week just flew by...

We had Rebecca's birthday, and the two of us have been doing a lot of wedding planning. Yes, it's still 11 months away, but we want to get as much planned as we possibly can. My dad and brother were also in town over the weekend, so we met them for lunch one day. It was her first chance to meet anyone from my family, and she still wants to marry me...so I guess things went well.

I'm still working on the finishing touches for the Ephemeris RPG, and we're still running the pre-sale. What? You haven't picked up your copy yet? Well, you still have time, so go to http://www.nomadicdeliriumpress.com/ephemeris/main.htm.

Over at Flying Pen Press, we're having a meeting this week to work out more of the details on the hush hush project we have going...and it should be a lot of fun once we get it going. This week we'll also be releasing Riders of the Mapinguari by Gaddy Bergmann. We're having a sale for 20% off up until the release date, which is June 17th...so if you'd like to pick up a copy of that, head over to http://flyingpenpress.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=34.

That should pretty much get you caught up on what's going on in my life. I'll try to post more as things start to come together...

On Twitter the next couple of nights

Tonight and tomorrow night (June 6th and 7th), I will be hanging out on Twitter from 7:00 EDT until 8:00 EDT to answer questions about the Ephemeris RPG...or whatever else you might want to ask.

If you want to be part of the conversation, just be sure to follow @jalanerwine.

While you're waiting, pre-order your copy of the rules at http://www.nomadicdeliriumpress.com/ephemeris/main.htm. It will normally list for $19.95, but you can pre-order your copy for just $14.95.

The pre-sale has begun

The pre-sale for the Ephemeris RPG has now officially begun. The first rulebook will be released in late July. When it is released, it will be a 6X9 trade paperback with more than 400 pages of information! Upon release, the list price for the book will be $19.95 + S&H...but during the pre-sale, you can order the book before it's released for only $14.95 + S&H.

So what are you waiting for? Go to http://www.nomadicdeliriumpress.com/ephemeris/main.htm and order your copy today.

The cover shown here is just a mock-up of what the final cover could look like...but we needed something...

Catching up

I took a couple of days off so Rebecca and I could spend some time together, and now I'm playing a desperate game of catch-up.

During those days, we took a lot of walks, and while passing a stream, I caught a picture of this guy...



Since he's in shadow, it's kind of hard to see, but this little guy had more red in his fur than I've ever seen in a raccoon.

Now that I've been back to work over the last couple of days, I've updated The Genre Mall and the Sam's Dot website.

I'm not expecting things to ease up any time soon as tomorrow marks the official start of the Ephemeris pre-release sale...so there will be a lot of promoting to do throughout the day. Tomorrow I'll have the actual link to the pre-sale site, and I'll post it here so those of you interested in ordering a copy at a discount can do so.

A day of nothing

In all the time Rebecca and I have been together, we've never had a day where we didn't have something (or several somethings) to do. Tomorrow will be the first time that we are completely free...so we are going to relax.

If we get up early enough in the morning, we'll probably take a walk...probably to the little river that runs through the field behind us. After that, we're going to come home and watch all three Lord of the Rings movies (the Director's Cuts)...only taking breaks to call the kids and order take out.

I don't know if either of us will be able to handle not having anything to do...but we are certainly going to try!

Featured Anthology at Anthology Builder

The featured anthology at Anthology Builder contains one of my stories, "The Twin Sorceresses." This is my one, and so far only, story that would be categorized as a children's story. Yes, I know it's kind of scary that I might actually be writing stuff that could influence children, but there it is...

If you're interested in the anthology, which looks like it has some other great stuff in it, you can find it at http://www.anthologybuilder.com/view_template.php?template_id=381.

Tranquility in Tales of the Talisman

My short story "Tranquility" is in the current issue of Tales of the Talisman. A much older version of this story was the first story I wrote after making the "decision" to become a science fiction writer. This story has some of the same elements as that original, but I made a lot of changes to it...which it desperately needed. Gone are the three pages of exposition at the very beginning of the story that explain the war...like I implied, I was a rookie.

The basic premise of the story is that there's a disgruntled main character who is in the military, serving on the moon. When war breaks out on Earth, he helps to put an end to it...but at what cost to his psyche?

If you're interested in reading the story, you can order a copy from The Genre Mall at http://www.genremall.com/zinesr.htm#talisman.

A very productive couple of days

I've been keeping myself very busy over the last couple of days, and as a result, I've gotten a lot done, including finishing up two major projects.

I finished re-working the main Flying Pen Press page. You can check that out at http://www.flyingpenpress.com.

Even more impressive, I finished the final revisions on the Ephemeris RPG. There's still formatting to do, and a lot of other work to be done, but it looks like we should be able to start the pre-sale during the first week of June.

On a more personal note, I found out yesterday that my dad will be coming out for a KMGH reunion, so this will be Rebecca's first chance to meet someone in my family. For the most part, I think she's excited, but since I told her that I get a lot of my weirdness from him...I think she's a little worried.

We also think we may have found the site for our wedding next year...but it's in a public park, so we'll have to look into the rules for that. It's kind of interesting because I had mentioned the place a few times, and she never seemed to enthused. But on Friday we were over by there, and I told her how I envisioned the wedding happening...now she loves the idea.

Memorial Day Weekend update

Things have been crazy around the homestead. Yesterday was the last day of second grade for our oldest, and now both kids have gone to Texas to visit Grandma...and they won't be back until July. Things are sadly quiet around here.

The revisions on Ephemeris are coming along. With a little luck, I will actually have the final revisions done over this long weekend.

Over at Flying Pen we're talking about something that I think will be a great idea...but I can't really say anything about it right now...but we're putting together a team that might be creating some very fun stuff.

Feeling extremely sleep deprived at the moment, but hopefully I'll catch up on sleep soon.

In the meantime, enjoy a picture of one of our newest neighbors...

Nobody's Home to Aoife's Kiss

My short short "Nobody's Home" has been picked up for the March 2010 issue of Aoife's Kiss. It's kind of hard to believe, but this is the last science fiction short story that I have circulating. Most of the last few years have been taken up with novel writing and game creation, so I've run out of short stories.

There are still a few in my collection, but they're so bad, they never deserve to see the light of day again...

I said I wasn't going to do it...

...but I did it anyway. I've now joined the masses at Twitter. If you're interested in following me there, feel free to drop by https://twitter.com/jalanerwine.

Keeping the family on their toes

For those of you who actually know me, you're probably well aware that I'm basically a disaster in the kitchen, but this is more because I just don't really care about cooking...as opposed to actually being incompetent.

Apparently my family seems to think that I don't know my way around the kitchen. I told the kids that we were going to make breakfast in bed for Rebecca, so when I got up, the oldest had a bowl and a box of cereal out. Both of them were quite surprised that I planned on actually cooking breakfast...and Rebecca was equally surprised when we brought it in for her.

Later in the day I made a traditional Chickasaw fry bread. It was the first time I'd ever made anything like this, and I'm pretty sure it was the first time that I've every actually made something from scratch. Even to my surprise, it turned out really good. The girls seemed to like it at first, but I think they changed their minds the more they ate it...but I liked it, and that's what matters.

I do so like to keep people on their toes.

A Spring Walk

The oldest and I took a walk yesterday, exploring some of the "wild" around us that we hadn't seen before. On Thursday, we noticed that the prairie dog babies were starting to come out of their holes...so, the first shot I got was of one of them on its hole. He's kind of hard to see, but he's the off-colored spot on the fresher looking hole...



Normally, this field is very brown and sparse, but since we've gotten a few inches of rain in the last month, the field has really greened up. So, I had to get a shot of it...



Having prairie dogs around is a pretty cool thing, and I've been reading up on them, trying to understand why they do the things they do, and I've found that they have a complicated society, and actually seem to be fairly bright. Not only that, but they aren't the nuisance that most people claim they are...in fact, they're an important part of the ecosystem in this part of the country. There are hundreds of these guys in the field, and with the green, they stand out a lot more. So if you look at the other side of the river in this shot, all the little brown splotches are prairie dogs...



The most surprising part of the walk was when we came upon this young lady. I had no idea we had these so close to our place. This picture was actually taken within half a mile of our door...

For Goodreads followers

I'm now cross posting this blog on my Goodreads site, so now you can read my entries here, or over there...your choice.

If there's anything specific that you'd like for me to talk about, please let me know...

The first revisions are done!

I've just typed out the last of what are the first revisions on Ephemeris. The revised rules are almost 15% longer with quite a bit more detail. There's still a lot of work, as we still need to add more things for the characters to play with, but this is a significant step.

I feel like I've been working on this beast for years, and I actually have been, and it will be nice once we finally release the game. As of right now, we're shooting for an Aug. 1st release, but if all goes well (which it rarely does), we might be able to push that release up a little!

Stay tuned for more information as I have it.

An update for the end of April

I've been very busy of late. I've had a case of the creeping cruds (no, it's not the swine flu...people really need to relax on that subject.)

We're nearing the end of the school year for the oldest, so she's had all kinds of events. I've also been putting a lot of effort into the revisions of Ephemeris, and I'm almost done with those. I've also been working on a bit of a redesign of the Flying Pen Press website...hope to debut that eventually.

We've also been working on trying to get all of our financial issues worked out. We were supposed to be getting married in a few weeks, but Rebecca's tax return was intercepted because of unpaid student loans, and now her wages are being garnished. Add to that me losing my "real" job, and things have been a struggle, and we've had to postpone the wedding until next May. By then hopefully the economy, and our personal finances will have improved.

In the next couple of days I will hopefully be posting an entry about finishing the first revisions on Ephemeris. At this point, we're hoping for a release date right around Aug. 1st, but there may be a pre-sale event even before that...so for those of you who have impatiently been awaiting the release of the game...it may actually be coming!!!

Ken Rand

Back when I first started out this crazy endeavor of writing, I was published in several ProMart magazines. Around the same time, there was a guy named Ken Rand who was also being published alongside me. When I became an editor for ProMart, I had the pleasure of publishing Ken several times...often joking with him that his stuff was too good for what I was editing...and in some ways that was true.

Over the last few years, we've exchanged an occasional e-mail, posted on each other's LiveJournal from time to time...but overall we didn't keep in touch like we should.

I've just learned that Ken passed away yesterday. He'd been sick for a long time, and he often talked about the fact that he was outliving any of his own expectations for his health, but I guess his illness finally became too much for him. All I know is that I wished I would have kept in touch with him more than I did.

You'll be missed Ken. You were a great writing talent, but more importantly, you were a great guy...

Great experience during revisions

Normally, revising my work is something that I really hate doing. Last night, I had one of those great experiences while working on the revisions of Ephemeris. It was after sunset, and I was sitting in our living room with the sliding glass door open. Yes, true, we did just get almost a foot of snow just a few days ago, but that doesn't mean it can't be really warm a few nights later. During that storm, this area got a lot of moisture (we saw a lot of rain and snow), so the river that runs through the field close to our house is running high and running fast. Needless to say, it was quiet enough last night that I could hear that river running while I was working on the revisions.

There's just something about the sound of running water that seems to drive the creative juices. I've heard this from a lot of writers, and I know it's true for me. So, I sat for a solid three hours and just cranked out notes for revising the game. It was one of the best revision sessions I've ever had.

Sadly, with the dry heat we're now getting, the water levels are starting to drop in the river, so I might not get to repeat that experience for a while...at least not until we start getting our Summer deluges.

The initial draft of Ephemeris is done

I've just typed the last of the 80,000+ words that is the initial draft of the Ephemeris RPG. This has taken forever and a day to get to this point, but as of late, I've been getting a lot done on it. Unfortunately, my partner in this has dropped the ball a bit, and I've had a lot more work to do than I expected...but it's done...it's done...it's done!!!

There's still a lot of work ahead of us. I have to go back through and put in all kinds of table. I have to work on the language to make it smoother. And I have to make some changes to the early part of the game because some of the rules changed half way through. Things just made more sense the farther into them that I got.

It shouldn't take anywhere near as long to revise the rules as it did to create them, so we're still hoping for a late Summer release. It would be so nice to finally have this beast out of the way...but it's been a lot of fun creating the game.

Now...I think I'll sleep. This last little push has left me with some severe insomnia...

An Ephemeris update

The RPG I've been designing, Ephemeris, is now very late in delivery. However, there is definite progress that is being made. Most of the initial draft of the rules has been written. My co-designer is supposed to be sending me the final chapter that I need very soon. At least, I hope he will be. If he doesn't, then I need to write that section. After that it will be some tweaking of the rules, and a whole lot of re-writing...but we are making progress.

I'm hoping for a release in late summer or early fall.

Price on my Kindle books reduced

If you're lucky enough to have a Kindle, you can now get two of my books for just 99 cents!

The Opium of the People and Seedlings on the Solar Winds are both available from Amazon for a new low price. Here are the links...

The Opium of the People

Seedlings on the Solar Winds

Why are you here?

Since joining NetworkedBlogs, I now have nearly 100 followers...and I know there were several of you here before I joined. I would imagine that quite a few of the people who are "followers" actually just excepted the Facebook invitation because that's what a lot of people do. But for those of you who actually do follow this blog now...or who have followed for quite a while, I'm curious as to what makes you read this particular blog? What do you like to hear me talk about?

This is your chance to give me some feedback...

Thanks...

Forgive Men Their Trespasses at Afterburn SF

My story, Forgive Men their Trespasses, is the featured story at Afterburn SF this week.



This story is set in the same "universe" as my novel The Opium of the People, although this one takes place in the Denver metro area. Those of you familiar with Denver might recognize a few of the places.

Hope you enjoy the story...

The Blizzard

As Colorado blizzards go, this one wasn't much of anything. We did have sustained winds of about 40 mph, and we did get about a foot of snow in this area, but anyone familiar with Colorado in March knows that that's not all that impressive.

Still, I did promise some pictures to a few people, so here they are.

During the storm (a little dark because of the blowing snow):


The morning after:




No matter how much snow, the kids always have fun:

Filed By

Anyone who reads this blog knows that I'm always trying to find a new way to promote my work. Today, I found Filed By...and I signed up, so please feel free to check out my page. It's currently a work in progress...

The end of BSG

Last night was the final episode of Battlestar Galactica, and my thoughts on the final episode are about the same as my thoughts on the series as a whole. It had some great moments, and it showed a lot of potential, but ultimately it fell flat.

The whole series had a little too much "God" or "Gods" in it for my taste. I don't necessarily mind science fiction with a bit of a religion in it...as long as it's a good story. Watching last nights episode, however, left me greatly disappointed. In a lot of ways, I felt that the writers fell back on the old Deus Ex Machina, which seems to be something you can get away with on TV...but NEVER in print fiction. In the end, everything happened because that was how God wanted it to happen...what a lame rip off! And Starbuck? She was an angel? What does that say about this Cylon God, considering that Starbuck fracked half the guys in the fleet?

Overall, I would give the series and the final episode a C+. It had moments of greatness, but it fell back on literary cliches far too often. I imagine the writers thought they were being clever by having the Galactica end up at prehistoric Earth...but guess what guys? It's been done before...and Douglas Adams did it better!

I guess the good thing is that I now have an extra hour to work on Friday nights...

Flying Pen Press

I've just been named Senior Editor at Flying Pen Press. I will be taking over many of the editorial duties in an effort to free up the publisher to focus more on the things that a publisher should be focusing on.

Flying Pen already has several great titles out, and you owe it to yourself to check them out.

A busy week at The Genre Mall

In a good month, I'll add about 15 new titles to The Genre Mall. In the last three days, I've completely blown through those numbers. On Monday, I uploaded 13 new titles, and today I uploaded another 10 new titles. Those numbers are unprecedented.

It was a pretty wide variety of titles, and I've also added a new publisher...Flying Pen Press. Please feel free to check out all of the listings at http://www.genremall.com/new.htm.

The Syfy channel

By now, I'm sure most of you have heard that the SciFi Channel is planning on changing its name to the Syfy Channel. If you weren't already aware, I'll wait while you go read the article...

http://www.tvweek.com/news/2009/03/sci_fi_channel_aims_to_shed_ge.php

Is it just me, or were you insulted as well? I was particularly annoyed by:

“The name Sci Fi has been associated with geeks and dysfunctional, antisocial boys in their basements with video games and stuff like that, as opposed to the general public and the female audience in particular,” said TV historian Tim Brooks, who helped launch Sci Fi Channel when he worked at USA Network.

I personally embrace the term geek and nerd. I happen to be proud of those names, and let's face it, there are a lot of very successful people out there that are geeks and nerds...Bill Gates ring a bell?

When I first heard about this, I was thinking it was time for those of us that are geeks and nerds to band together and boycott the Syfy Channel...then I realized that they don't really show anything worth watching anyway...

Wondrous Web Worlds Vol. 8

Last night I finally finished the editing of Wondrous Web Worlds Vol. 8, and I e-mailed it off to Tyree at Sam's Dot Publishing. I've already seen a mock up of the cover, which was done by Laura Givens, and it looks like it will be a very nice looking book. Once it's actually released, I will post a table of contents and an ordering link...of course.

I have two more days at the real job, and then it will be time to file for unemployment. I'm going to be sitting down with someone (can't say much yet) on Tuesday to talk about a job. It wouldn't be a job that would pay really well (yet), but it's a job with a lot of potential...and it's something I would REALLY enjoy doing. So, we shall see what comes of that.

A day at the ER

Yesterday was a fun day spent at the ER. Rebecca called me at work at 10:30 saying she was in intense pain and thought she needed to go to the hospital. I left work and quickly came home. She was having intense pain (she said it was worse than labor) in her back and abdomen.

So, we ended up going to the hospital. Seven hours later, we got the diagnosis we were expecting...kidney stones. She's not the type that does anything easy, however. She has them on both sides, and one of them is larger than normal...so it might not pass. I took today off from work to make sure the oldest got to school, and to keep an eye on the youngest, while I keep Rebecca doped up on pain killers.

Seven hours seems a bit ridiculous for a Monday afternoon at the ER. I know they have a triage system set up, but I don't think it works. There were a lot of people that got in before us who didn't even look like they were in pain...whereas she doubled up several times while we were waiting. If she'd had a severe kidney infection, those extra hours of waiting might have made a big difference in the final outcome.

After she was discharged, we went to get her prescriptions filled...that was the next part of the ridiculous day. Her anti-nausea prescription was $110 for 15 pills...and that was with insurance!!! Something tells me socialized medicine might not necessarily be a bad thing. The funniest thing about it was that her highly addictive narcotic pain killer was only $5. Yeah, the American health care system really works. I hate to imagine how much all of this would have cost us if it had been me...I don't have insurance. Even with her insurance, I'm sure this is going to set us back quite a bit.

The one sad part of the night was while she was in her room waiting, I saw the police bring a girl in who was probably 13 or 14. She was cuffed, and because they didn't have any empty beds, they were questioning her and giving her a breathalyzer in the hallway. I think she'd attempted suicide. In the two plus hours we were in the room, I never saw her parents show up...that's the biggest tragedy of all...

Weekend update

Things have been hectic around here, so that's the main reason for the lack of posting of late. We had the in-laws staying with us for a couple of weeks, so that kept us busy with a lot of different things. Since they left, the kids seem to have forgotten how to behave, so that's made life interesting.

This coming week was supposed to have been my final week at my "real" job, but it looks like we're going to stay open for at least one more week. I've been able to pick up some extra hours, and as a result, I should now qualify for unemployment if I don't find a job...which I don't think I will right away. I've never liked the idea of government aid of any kind, and I've never had to take any kind of aid in the past, but times are changing for all of us, and stimulus or not, the economy pretty much sucks right now.

In the writing corner, I've had a small press publisher pass on Red Moon Rising, but they gave me some very specific things that didn't work for them, and offered to re-read it if I can make the changes. Given my crazy schedule, it will probably be a few months before I can get back to work on the book.

My main writing project right now is still Ephemeris. I'm making progress on the game, but it's very slow progress. For editing, I'm pretty sure we've read all of the submissions for Infradead, and we will soon be finishing that up. I feel very bad about that project because I haven't had enough time to devote to it like I would have liked. As a result, our co-editor, Scott Virtes has had to pick up a lot of the slack...and I feel very bad about that. I'm also working on Wondrous Web Worlds Vol. 8, and I will hopefully be sending that off to Tyree at Sam's Dot in the next couple of weeks.

That's about it for now. I'll try to post more often as time allows it...but now I must feed the kids, and continue to try to find a "real" job.

Recognized in public

A few weeks ago, my oldest took a copy of Seedlings on the Solar Winds in for show and tell for her 2nd grade class...a lot of the kids were very excited about it.

Then last week, Rebecca and I were shopping for birthday gifts for the youngest when I suddenly heard a voice from below saying "You're the guy who writes books!" It was one of the oldest's classmates, and he was very excited. You would have thought he'd met whoever it is that little boys think is cool these days.

Authors are rarely recognized in public, so this was pretty cool for my first time...

And of course the Hugos

Hugo balloting has also opened. If you attended Denvention or if you're already registered for Anticipation, you are eligible to vote. Simply go to...http://www.anticipationsf.ca.

If you're eligible, then you should certainly take advantage of it and vote. I wish I could attend Anticipation this year, but with the wedding and everything, we simply can't afford a trip to Montreal this year.

The Locus Poll

Locus Magazine has started their annual readers poll (although you don't have to be a subscriber to vote. This is a great way to vote for some of your favorite titles from last year, and it's also a good way to show support for Locus (one of the best resources in the speculative fiction field.) If you're interested in voting, simply go to https://secure.locusmag.com/2009/2009PollAndSurvey.html. The poll has drop-down menus for the items they consider worthy of voting for, but you can write-in a title or editor as well.

Should you be interested in voting for me, you can consider the following:
Short Stories: The Magenta Equations from Allegory E-Zine and Hunted from Tales of the Talisman. You can also consider me for editor...although I don't expect to beat out any of the people on the list...I am a realist as well.

Some other people and titles to consider:
Editors & Writers:
Tyree Campbell
David Lee Summers

Artist:
Laura Givens

Zines:
Aoife's Kiss
Tales of the Talisman
The Fifth Di...
The Martian Wave

Publishers:
Nomadic Delirium Press
Sam's Dot Publishing

Aliens

As many of you probably know by now, I'm helping to create a new science fiction role playing game. One thing that should be different about this game as opposed to others is that, for the most part, we are trying to use plausible science in the creation of the game. Granted, we are using hyperspace, but who wants to play a game where relativity has to be taken into account? In other ways, we're trying to make it believable. Think more along the lines of Babylon 5 as opposed to Star Wars.

Most of the "encounters" that characters are going to have will be with the major species of the game, but we'd still like to include some "monsters" in this thing. With that in mind, we're wondering about vacuum based lifeforms. What do you think they would need to survive, and how would they have evolved?

Obviously, they need to be able to "breathe" in some completely new way, they need to be able to function in vacuum, they need to be able to survive the extreme temperature fluctuations, they obviously can't have blood like we have...

...what else do you think we need to take into account when we create these critters?

Regime Change

Here in the US today we had our peaceful transition of power. Out with the old (and it's about time), and in with the new. Anyone who has read my more political postings on this blog has to know that I was never a big Bush supporter. My personal feeling is that he was the worst thing to happen to this country in my lifetime...and maybe ever. So, seeing him get on that helicopter today really felt good.

I'm glad to see Obama in office. I think he will make a much better president (but then so would my cat), but I don't hold the overwhelming optimism of so many Americans. First off, he's a politician, and it's very difficult to trust politicians in this day and age. Secondly, he's shown several times that he's willing to compromise what he says are his beliefs in order to gain favor (like most politicians.) Still, I don't think he will do anywhere near as much harm as Dubya did.

I watched his speech, and I thought he had some good things to say, but like most speeches, it was filled with ideas but no real plans. We'll have to see how he plans to make those ideas a reality in the coming months. I was very put off by the amount of times god and religion were mentioned...although it was nice to hear him say non-believers. Not sure if I've ever heard a president comment on what is a growing percentage of the population...and it was also nice to hear him say that he wants to put more emphasis back on science...something that has suffered horribly under the Bush regime. It was also nice to hear an American president that can actually use the English language. I haven't yet heard Obama say nuclear, but I'm willing to bet that he will get the pronunciation right.

The best part of this day was the fact that there is now a non-white male running this country. We're way behind many other countries, but that at least gives me hope. I can now point out to my kids that, like them, he's mixed, and even they could be president...although we still have to elect a woman.

I will say that I am cautiously optimistic about the future of this country under Obama's leadership, but I think his supporters are setting him up to fail. There is no way in the American political system that he can bring about all of the Change that he is talking about...but he will do better than Bush.

Goodbye George! I won't miss you even in the slightest.

And Good Luck Barack!

My site

I've been able to get my domain name back, so jalanerwine.com is back up.

The date

In my year in review blog I mentioned that one of the biggest things I'd be doing this year is planning our wedding. Turns out it won't be as much work as I'd thought. After looking over our finances and realizing just how expensive a wedding and honeymoon would be, we quickly became aware that we had limited options.

Our original plan was to get married this May, but we wouldn't be able to afford the wedding...so we were going to postpone it to August. By doing that, we'd be able to afford the wedding, but not the honeymoon. So, we were faced with the option of pushing the wedding back to May of 2010. At that point, we both realized that it was more important that we get married...ceremony or not.

So, we will be having a courthouse wedding on May 21st of this year. After that, we will be honeymooning in Taos. This is also easier on us because we were already planning on having the kids spend part of their summer with their grandma.

For our first anniversary, we're thinking about having a second ceremony, which would be more like a traditional wedding...including all of the guests...

Preditors & Editors

This is an annual poll that has had some major problems in the past. It looks like they might have everything going right this year, so if you're interested in voting for me, I've been nominated in the following categories:

Author
Science Fiction Short Story: The Magenta Equations
Zine Editor

Also, please feel free to vote for any Sam's Dot Publishing or Nomadic Delirium Press listings that you might see...

And The Genre Mall is up for bookstore...

http://critters.org/predpoll