Making progress though slowly on my book #15. At the halfway point I made a book cover to inspire me. But recently I rethought it. Here it is: Mildred dressed as she usually does when out shopping.
In the background is the spaceship she discovered below in the mountainous forests of Canada.
Click the image to see it full size.
Recently I was asked which of my books I’d recommend to parents of teenagers. This was my answer.
Click images to read the first few pages and to buy the books.
I just published the ebook Shapechanger’s Destiny on Amazon. It completes the trilogy Mary McCarthy: Shapechanger.
Click images to read the first few pages and to buy the books.
An author whose works greatly influenced my stories was James Schmitz. I seek to give my readers the same feeling of wonder I feel reading anything he wrote.
I just finished re-reading a collection of his Vegan Confederacy stories and begun re-reading another collection. The second is of some of the stories taking place in the Confederacy’s Hub worlds.
Click image to read the first few pages and to buy the books.
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Recently I decided to use Microsoft Word rather than LibreOffice to write my stories. I wanted to use Grammarly to help me copyedit my stories and LO did not have that option.
The current version of MS Word is available only as a subscription service. I did not want to be captive to Microsoft in this way, nor pay the high price of the software. So I researched downloading free older versions. I found over a dozen places that said they had Word in its several versions. (The newer versions are 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, and 2019. They are no longer sold or supported by Microsoft, which is fine by me.)
I picked Word 2013 for various reasons. I then examined several websites that offered it free. I chose mysoftwarefree.com because over a dozen scam evaluator sites said it was virus free and because it had very clear and simple instructions on how to download and install Word.
I now have Word running. (I also got the rest of Office 2013. I don’t want those apps and will uninstall them sometime soon.) For now I’m happy with this version of Word and its ability to run Grammarly.
To download and install Word 2013 click this image.
Just for fun – a mashup of dancing scenes from movies set to the tune of Rasputin, performed by the German all-Black vocal group Boney M.
Click on image to see the video.
I recently came across a genius comedienne, smart, creative, and most of all HILARIOUSLY funny. She is Iliza Shlesinger.
She has been working steadily since 2007. She is best known for five comedy specials. Here they are, from earliest to latest. I eagerly look forward to what she does next.
Click image to preview & add to your Watchlist/MyList.
The first two are on Amazon Video, the next three are on Netflix.
Just for fun – a mashup of dancing scenes from movies set to the tune of Footloose.
Click on image to see the video.
I’m an aerospace software and systems engineer, working most recently at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab and Boeing’s Phantom Works. I am now retired and spend much of each day writing, mostly fiction.
I am also one of many diverse professionals who study, think, and discuss how to colonize the Moon. Here are some ideas your own engineers may not have suggested to you.
BUILD WITH TELEROBOTS – Drones remotely operated from Earth are most cost effective. “Deaths” among them are not tragic, they need no air or water or food or habitats, they need not be returned home.
BUILD WITH PREFABBED PARTS – Construction on the Moon can be done faster and better by doing the hardest work here on Earth.
USE LOCAL MATERIALS – Lunar rocks and soil contain useful minerals which can be extracted in several ways. These include oxygen and the metals iron, calcium, aluminum, and magnesium.
USE VR/AR HEADSETS – “Vears” are an infant industry slowly ramping up to a big business. Remote operation of drones and viewing of the Moon by long-distance “tourists” is a way to give Earth-bound humans a better way of visiting the Moon.
Putting people on the Moon is a practical near-term goal, a necessary precursor to putting them on Mars. It’s time to build a moon base, or better a moon city.
After the base or city is built it would be covered by a thin layer of dirt to protect it from meteorites and extremes of heat and cold. Artwork by Chris Butler, available in several different versions at his web site.
The title says it all!
Laer Carroll 