The title of today’s post refers to a quote by Ray Bradbury, who once said, “We are an impossibility in an impossible universe.” He was referring to how amazing we humans and the universe are and how it’s almost overwhelming to understand it all. Yet we do strive to understand it all through science, faith, and our imagination. Today is a big day for our family. We have gathered in Flagstaff, Arizona to celebrate my youngest daughter’s graduation with a geology degree from Northern Arizona University. Artist’s Rendering of the surface of Proxima Centauri b. Image Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser Veri ..read more

I just learned 2024 is the centenary of Edward D. Wood, Jr.’s birth. I first learned about Wood from a book called The Golden Turkey Awards by critics Harry and Michael Medved. The book named Wood’s film Plan 9 From Outer Space as the worst movie of all time and Wood himself was named worst director of all time. The reason I owned the book was that I’d always enjoyed so-called B-movies and, I have to admit, I enjoyed the Medveds’ somewhat snarky look at bad cinema. To their credit, they didn’t limit their critiques to low-budget films. They criticized big budget movies as well. Still, Plan 9 ..read more

I recently became aware of the term “godpunk.” It’s a science fiction/fantasy sub-genre that sits alongside such sub-genres as “steampunk” and “solarpunk.” While “steampunk” imagines a story set in a Victorian-like milieu and “solarpunk” imagines positive outcomes in a future with climate change, “godpunk” tells stories about the world’s deities their close associates, such as angels and demons. Often these stories are set in a time period outside of the classic stories of these gods. What’s more, while these stories can be humorous or offer wry commentary, they endeavor to be respectful of th ..read more

Body and Soul, the Hunt Is On! Hounds, faithful, tenacious, and oft the subject of otherworldly lore. Will they stand beside you or hunt you down? Only time (and the tale) will tell. A Cry of Hounds is an anthology presented in conjunction with the Tell-Tale Steampunk Festival that presents eleven tales inspired by the master of mystery, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, paying tribute to his genius for deduction and his passion for things beyond the ken of mortal men. When we were invited to create stories for the anthology, we were asked to pick a supernatural hound from folklore to incorporate into ..read more

Happy Read an Ebook Week! You can find my Scarlet Order Vampire novels available now at Smashwords at a promotional price to help you celebrate. Find my vampire novels and many more great books at https://www.smashwords.com/ebookweek from March 3-9! The third volume of my Scarlet Order vampire series was released just last month. This is your opportunity to grab all three books for a special promotional price of just 99 cents each. That means you can get the whole series for less than the price of one book! Dragon’s Fall: Rise of the Scarlet Order Vampires Three vampires. Three lives. Three ..read more

Okay, perhaps it’s not the most common vampire trope, but a trope I have seen in most vampire novels is the moment when the author takes time to tell us which vampire tropes don’t work in their world. The first book I remember encountering this is Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice when Louis talks about how he enjoys looking at crucifixes and can’t transform into a mist to go through a keyhole. Done well, it can ground the novel and help the reader suspend their disbelief. Unfortunately, it often feels like a kind of obligatory telling instead of showing. When I read the description of M ..read more

I first read Anne Rice’s novel The Vampire Lestat a little over 30 years ago, soon after reading Interview with the Vampire and seeing Neil Jordan’s 1993 film. Of course, there has never been a film of The Vampire Lestat, so it’s not surprising my memory of the novel was rusty at best. Still, it seems I remembered most of the important elements, though I’d forgotten several details and I came away with a somewhat different impression of the novel than I remembered. The Vampire Lestat is an interesting second book in the series because it’s actually something of a prequel to the first book. Pr ..read more

When I was a kid, television shows like UFO and Space: 1999 along with movies like 2001: A Space Odyssey seemed to promise elaborate bases on the moon by the time I would be an adult. I knew not everyone would get to go to the moon, but I knew people in certain careers might have the opportunity. That played an important role in my interest in science and astronomy. I hoped maybe I could get a job that would take me to the moon for a visit. Unfortunately, it’s been some 52 years since anyone has set foot on the moon. I have been fortunate enough to meet three of the people who did: Buzz Aldrin ..read more

One of my Christmas presents this year was a signed copy of the Blu-Ray of the film A Place Among the Dead starring and directed by Juliet Landau, who is probably best know for her roles as Drusilla in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Loretta King in the movie Ed Wood. The film imagines fictionalized versions of Ms. Landau and her husband Deverill Weekes making a documentary examining a serial killer who has been operating around Santa Barbara, California. The movie starts off with Landau interviewing such actors and writers as Gary Oldman, Ron Perlman, Anne Rice, Charlaine Harris, and Kim Newman ..read more

The countdown to the release of my thirteenth novel, Ordeal of the Scarlet Order has commenced. The book will be released on February 13, 2024 but you can pre-order both the ebook and print book now. Also, there are some ways you can get the complete ebook early if you’d like, so be sure to read to the bottom of the post for the details. Here’s a look at the cover and the description: The Scarlet Order vampires are on the run. Rudolfo de Cordoba has led most of the Scarlet Order vampires to a new home in Colorado where they can regroup and unlock new vampire powers. Alexandra and Drake have g ..read more