Queen and Commander of the Hive

Also Available through Smashwords

As promised, I am introducing you to another book that walks the line between totally serious and a farce. This middle ground is where readers find books with substance and a light touch; where the drama doesn't overwhelm the reader and the humor doesn't drown the tense emotions. Janine A. Southard's "Queen and Commander" delivers a compelling story concept with interesting world building complete with a unique society structure. She does all this without burring the reader in pages of description and instead lets the reader learn through immersion; a technique I love.  

Queen and Commander (The Hive Queen Saga)
By Janine A. Southard
ASIN: B00BRM2XVE
ISBN-13: 9780988646858

About the Book:
Test Day, the big day where all sixteen year olds discover what society feels they should do for the rest of their lives simply based on the answers of the Test. And that is what those sixteen year olds will do no matter their personal plans or desires.  No one can study for the test, or so society tells everyone, but maybe, just maybe, a Perceiver could if she was really,

Portals in The Space Between

I love good, light hearted reads. Like so many television shows and movies, the stretch from deadly serious to completely slapstick covers a lot of territory. Take cop shows for instance. The road runs from Brooklyn Nine-Nine to Blue Bloods. Somewhere in the middle resides NCIS and NCIS Los Angeles; while closer to Blue Bloods, the humor of those shows keep it lighter. Then we have S.H.I.E.L.D. - lighter still- and Chuck before we get to Brooklyn Nine-Nine. All of these were shows I watched, but for different reasons. Books run this distance as well and if you are in the mood for a middle of the road Science Fiction that has some seriousness coupled with a light touch, I have two for you.  "Queen and Commander" by Janine A. Southard tells a tale of six young people who get their own spaceship and go off to see the universe.  "The Space Between" by Scott J. Robinson relates the story of an invasion of earth and other worlds. All these worlds just happen to be connected by a magical gateway. Both are entertaining reads, well developed and containing interesting settings. Today I will introduce:

The Undead have Stories to Tell

Available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble

     Anthologies are cool things. You get to sample several different writers or, if the collection is from a single author, you get to sample several different aspects of the writer.  In the collection "The Undead at War and Other Stories", Kevin Long shows several sides of himself. There are poems and short stories with twists and turns.  I don't pretend to understand everything this author is saying but I will say I enjoyed the ride. So much so that I want to see more.

About the book:
       The first story, "Bubba's Burger Barn", is a unique and interesting time travel story with a built in loop. While far from my favorite in this group of tales, many will find it exceedingly funny. And I did feel for the protagonist, Yank E. Flagg. Drops and drips from our life sprinkled into a future setting kept me on
guard for hidden commentary on our nation and her policies. Mostly it was the time loop that got to me and Flagg.

Mens et Mania: The MIT Nobody Knows

Mens et Mania: The MIT Nobody Knows

Samuel Jay Keyser

Publisher: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2011)

Available at Amazon

We all know about the Seven Wonders of the World (with more being built every day); some things are just mythic. We can look at the awesomeness of the Grand Canyon or see photos of Dubai's tallest hotel and see right away that they are unique, stunning, and beautiful. But when it comes to the abstract landscape of the intellectual and scientific, we don't really "see" things the same way. To most of us, MIT is a set of buildings in Cambridge Mass. along the Charles River that provides a counterpoint to Harvard on the other side. They do law and politics, MIT does science and math.

But what makes for a school that for generations has spun off new inventions and technologies? How does that work behind the scenes? What do the people there see? Jay Keyser gives us a peek into this world.