Tuesday, June 30, 2015

5 ways Earth gets rid of pesky humans


Here's my UPDATED list of ways the Earth Might Get rid of Pesky Humans.

Some of you will be reluctant to follow me down this morose path. Since I want you to follow me, I’ll try to be funny about our possible demises.

In no particular order:

1) A Giant Super Volcano beneath Yellowstone Park explodes.
I’m constantly amazed at how many people don’t know we have a super-volcano all set to blow Yellowstone park to smithereens. Goodbye buffalo, human eating grizzly bears, and astounded tourists.

But that’s just the start of trouble. Since this is a super volcano, not just a common volcano, it’s thousands of time more powerful than your garden variety lava burper. This mother of volcanoes has blown twelve times over the last 18 million years.

 It’s worse case would pretty well obliterate North America either from the initial explosion or the ash fallout, or the consequential aftermath of both. Here’s one estimation of plume dispersion depending on season it blows:

As you can see, the fallout will reach most of US and Canada. A great deal of people will attempt to drive to Florida or Mexico to escape the fallout. Oddly, neither Florda or Mexico will welcome the invasion. 

Don’t be surprised if Mexico hires guards to protect their side of the fences we put up along the border. And expect Florida to blow up all their bridges, seed their new border with their excessive population of gators, and declare themselves a sovereign nation, because seriously the 38 million people who didn't die in the initial blast zone aren’t going to fit in the bottom half of Florida.

All the dust and gases in the air could also trigger non-recoverable global warming which will conclude with our next ice age. Not to mention all our farmlands will be covered in ash, breathing will become challenging, and life overall will suck. We will no doubt envy those who were close enough to watch the explosion first hand and died as they said, "Oh, that's--"


2) Methane gases lurking in our oceans will rise and greet us when our oceans get warmer.
In a previous global warming event it’s believed the oceans warmed, causing the frozen methane to rise from the ocean and poison most of the life on Earth. Those creatures clever enough to miss methane poison will have to face intense global warming, (because methane is a huge factor in global warming). You'll also enjoy volcanoes, fires, droughts, and then a really long deep freeze. 

Personally, my recommendation is to breathe in the methane early on. Nothing that occurs afterwards sounds like any fun at all.


3) Earth gets slammed by angry 
Pluto or a herd of moderate size meteorites.

First, let’s start with the possibility that Pissed off Pluto comes to Earth to lodge its complaint about being demoted from its planet status. Pluto has several moons rotating around it! That's more than Earth can boast. By the time it arrives here, its gone...Instead of saying it goes postal, let’s say it goes asteroid and the meeting doesn't go well for either.

Some believe this has already happened once, while Earth was forming (only the part about a planet crashing into earth-not that it was Pluto.) A subset of scientists believes this explains the large rock that rotates around us which we call the moon. The theory is another planet slammed into into Earth, left a good bit of itself behind, then the bits and pieces left formed the moon.

Still, it had to be a devastating merger and Earth took a really long time to recover.

Clearly, there would be no surviving life if Pluto attacks us. But what if a herd of smaller asteroids from the Kuiper belt rain down upon us?

Imagine if something knocks into the Kuiper belt, sending a large swath of rocks flying towards Earth. 

The  positive side of this scenario is you’ll get a great sky show before you  evaporate.
"Oh that's pre---"


4) The magnetic poles flip leaving us temporarily exposed to the sun’s solar flares.

On occasion in the past, our magnetic poles have reversed, which means they probably will again.

This is far more serious than North becoming South and south becoming north, although that will be troublesome for North and South America, the North and South Dakotas and Carolinas, and West Virginia, not to mention the thousands of cities utilizing directions in their names. Will they swap names or just be backwards thereafter?

For a short while…years…10 -1000 years...our magnetic field protecting us from the sun’s intensity will become a tangled knot of confusion unable to do it's job in a satisfactory manner. Until the poles reverse and get back to work, we will be at great risk. During our naked/semi-naked time, solar flares will fry our electric grids and probably give us all cancer. Sadly all our money is de facto electronic data bits so we'll probably all become poor overnight. 

Only 3rd world countries not dependent upon electricity may survive the reversal. The rest of will be sitting in the dark wondering. “Did I forget to pay my electricity bill, Why doesn't my tv  or phone work? I'm very bored.”

Be patient, soon hungry people will arrive to have you for dinner,


5) Now this one, is of our own making.



The US Military has been dumping radioactive and toxic waste into our oceans for many decades, perhaps as early as the 1950's. 

They've no idea where many of the canisters are, nor how to retrieve them, if retrieving them even remains an option. 

Since no one is even trying to solve this problem, I'm guessing those who know the true state of the situation do not believe the problem has a solution. This leaves them hoping that most are dumped deep enough (many aren't) to hang with the frozen methane in the deep ocean UNTIL global warming and underwater volcanos cause the ocean to warm and then all the toxins will poison the water while returning to the surface to poison our air.


I'm sure there are many more ways Earth can get rid of it's two legged vermin, but I've spread enough cheeriness today. Here's my takeaway. 

Enjoy each day as if it is your last because any of these time bombs could occur tomorrow or a million years from now. We don't know. 
Also, be kind to everyone and laugh as much as you can. 

Since we live on a multifaceted time bomb and have failed to find a new planet and design a Faster than Light ship, we shouldn't take matters too seriously. Just enjoy life while you can.

Here's something to enjoy: 

AMAZON
Liza O'Connor will publish her first Sci-fi series. Book 1, The Gods of Probabilities, starts on the fourth dimension on Earth called Oceania by its inhabitants. These water people have always been good caretakers of their world. Unfortunately, all those uranium canisters and other toxic items we dropped into the ocean are now leaking into their dimension.  



PLEASE NOTE:
The fourth dimension does not belong to time. In fact, time is an illusion. (I know, it's disturbing to discover you are always rushing about for an illusion, but get used to it.)


But back to these poor water people. They will die from the poison leaking through to their dimension. They need to leave the planet and find a new one. (Something we'd be wise to do as well.) But how? They know less about space and spaceships than we do.






Saturday, June 27, 2015

Liza spotlights Greta van der Rol's The Demon's Eye


Today, I have Greta van der Rol and her latest book, The Demon's Edge.


The Demon's Eye
by
Greta Van der Rol



Krystina Merkos is reluctant to leave her home planet, but agrees it’s best that her father doesn’t have to concern himself with her safety while he fights a civil war. The journey on an Imperial warship becomes much more palatable when she discovers that Ben Paulsen, an old flame from her high school days, is a senior officer on the ship.
But it’s not all plain sailing. The captain wants to seduce her, Ben’s trying to keep his distance – and pirates want to sell her to the murderous sect waging war on her father.

When the frigate is attacked by a pirate fleet intent on capturing Krys, she faces impossible choices. If she hands herself over to the pirates, she will die a painful death. If she doesn’t, everyone will die.
Unless she and Ben can contrive a way out for them all.


Krys straightened her back, squared her shoulders, and smiled her public, so-pleased-to-meet-you smile before she answered the soft knock at her stateroom’s door. The young man waiting there took a step backwards and cleared his throat, his eyelashes fluttering. Surely she wasn’t that scary. And certainly the dress she wore wasn’t especially revealing. A bit of cleavage, bare back that he couldn’t see, cinched around the waist but loose to the floor. Not what she’d wear to seduce anybody.
Stepping into the corridor she put as much charm as she could muster into her tone. “I take it you’re my escort?” This lad was an officer? Lordy, they seemed to be younger every year. Krys could swear he still had pimples. But there was no avoiding the shiny bars on his shoulder boards.

“Yes, ma’am. Lieutenant Boll, ma’am.” He ripped off a crisp salute, no doubt taking solace in established protocol. “If you’ll follow me.”

He marched in front of her, not too fast, probably afraid she couldn’t keep up. Being tall enough to give most men a crick in the neck, she’d given up wearing nose-bleed high heels long ago. And her dress gave her plenty of room to stride in sensible, low heeled pumps if she wanted to. Whatever. She let him set the pace and tried to get the funeral march out of her head.
*************
The Demon’s Eye will be out late June/early July, only on Amazon. Stay tuned for Dreams2Media’s REAL cover. I’m looking forward to seeing what Rebecca produces.



Greta van der Rol loves writing action-packed adventures with a side salad of romance. Most of her work is space opera, but she has written paranormal and historical fiction.
She lives not far from the coast in Queensland, Australia and enjoys photography and cooking when she isn't bent over the computer. She has a degree in history and a background in building information systems, both of which go a long way toward helping her in her writing endeavours.


Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Philae Awakens!


It's a Miracle!
Little Philae has awoken from it's seven months sleep.


First, let's review Phil's sad story of abandonment last year. 


Yes, I could send you to a professional site to recall the past, but my version is so much funnier that I don't want to.

So deal with it. 

That means read it.

Have you read it?

If you did, you know we left a lost and lonely child with his uncaring rock star father, while his mother pulled further away.

There was always the hope Phil would wake up to talk to us again. But seriously, the kid wasn't latched down. What were the chances he'd stay with his dad?

Still, ever optimistic, the humans at ESA starting opening  communication to him now that his dad is getting closer to the sun and warming up.

And to my shock, Phil remained hidden somewhere on his dad and communicated with ESA.  He even sent them some data, mostly about himself, but given the hell he's been through, I think a bit of self interest is justifiable. 

So what next?

I'm sure the humans want to know where the bloody hell he is! Given they almost changed his mom, Rosetta's purpose to go look for the bot, they really want to know this. But at the last minute, they came to their sanity and had her maintain her mission. 

Good thing too, or Rose wouldn't be around to say good bye to Phil, and why else would he have woken up? Clearly, he wishes to tell his mom and all the humans who fell in love with the grand little bot Good bye and thanks for all bolts.

Why goodbye? Well, if you had read the prior blog like I asked you to, you would know. Phil isn't expected to survive the drive by the sun.

Even his dad may be very different when he finishes his drive by. Hopefully more responsible.

As for Rosetta, she'll watch the death of Phil, the assault on Kid Rock, send the info back to the humans and head out to outerspace to finally get a moment's peace.  

But she will leave, having had a chance to say her last goodbye to Philae. And that is the best we could have asked for. It had always been a one way road for Philae and Rosetta. 

While they never had a say in his mission, Philae took his planned death like a trooper. Otherwise, he would have hopped off his dad and gone for a space-about on his own. 

So let us learn from Philae. It's not how you die, but how you live that matters. 


HOLD DE PRESSESS!!!

Rosetta located Philae


And the ESA has changed Rosetta's Mission and extended her life until Sept 2016. Instead of wandering off into space, she will set down by Philae on her deadbeat husband and stay with her child. No longer will Philae die alone. His mom will be there with him.

HOLD DE PRESSES AGAIN.

That's not what's going to happen. Poor Philae is still going to die alone from severe sunburn. Then months later his mom will attempt to land...something she's not equipped to do. The big change is that she'll follow her deadbeat husband around and watch him change as the sun alters his character. Then when they are far away from the sun, she'll lose too much power and with her last dying efforts she'll attempt to land on Kid Rock.

Probably nowhere near Philae, if he didn't burn and float off into space months before. 

Now I'm sorry I read this update at all. The ending was far more poignant before...

Liza O'Connor is an author. (Couldn't you tell?)
In a few days, she will be bringing out a Sci Fi series called the Multiverses.  


Book 1 is available for Pre-Sale
The Gods of Probabilities

Each month I'll release another one.
These are all full length novels, so it's possible, like Philae, I'll burn up before finishing my task.
But I'm going to try my hardest...






Sunday, June 21, 2015

Libby Sinclair & Christine Severin share their Just Desserts stories

Today, I have two fabulous authors from this mega collection of bite sized delights.

Feast on this collection of 22 Contemporary and Paranormal/Sci-Fi/Fantasy Erotic stories from bestselling, award-winning and multi-published authors, in this limited-time anthology. All stories are exclusive new content and can be read without reading the series, but will be icing on the cake for readers loyal to each saga. 





Cake Topper by Libby Sinclair
A stand-alone story from the Incarnation Chronicles
science fiction, erotic romance
Emilee has had her eye on Grieg since the first time she met the tall blue alien.  Now that the treaty is signed turning enemies into allies, she can make her move and find out just how blue he can get.

Cherry Lips by Christine Severin
Stand-alone Erotic Short-Story
time-travel, erotica

What if she had given into Ben back when they were young? Thanks to a chance happening and a retro tube of lip gloss with a magic spell, Jen gets a chance to find out.
Buy Links:


  
 B&N




About the Authors

Libby Sinclair is a science fiction romance fictionist, and has been writing for the last ten years. She is happily married and although her husband doesn’t understand her fiction habit, he accepts it.

@scifilibby

Christine Severin was born in the desert on a snowy night. As the flakes cooled the hot earth, she came into the world ready to explore the duality of man and the sating of desire. Over the years she’s grown to appreciate sy-fy romance and erotica that puts characters in challenging or unusual settings.
Author Link


Wednesday, June 17, 2015

AR CeClerck shares her 2nd book of the Mythical Madness Series: Providence


Providence

Book II: Mythical Madness Series

by

AR DeClerck


The portals through the mythical kingdoms have closed. An ancient evil is rising in Asgaard and the Fates have decreed that their adopted son Kai Zoku travel there to discover the cause and save the worlds from Ragnarok. Kai has been given a partner for this mission, the Goddess of Beauty and Song, Sheridan Adara. She is the alluring sister to his brother Gage’s mate, and a woman who might understand him better than he understands himself. Through a journey to Asgaard and an ancient threat Sheridan and Kai find that their attraction might be the most dangerous temptation of all.



Prologue

A shadow fell over Sheridan as she lay on the cell floor. She opened her eyes enough to see through her lashes. He was a big man, and broad. He blocked out the harsh light of the sun. He squatted down next to her, his face mostly covered by a dark scarf. He left his arms lying across his thighs, and he looked down at her with his head tilted as he studied her.

“You can open your eyes, goddess. I already know you're awake.”

His voice, Sheridan decided, had a decidedly western accent. She lifted her lashes, and took him in without moving. His forehead was tanned and smooth, sloping down to dark eyebrows and bright blue eyes, ringed by impossibly long, black lashes. His eyes might have been beautiful, but they were cold. Colder than the stone floor on which she lay.

“You're Sheridan Adara.” Her eyes must have widened. No one knew her true name, not even her parents or Lavinia. Only the Fates, who gave a god or goddess their names with their powers, could know such a thing. He chuckled, raising the hair on the back of her neck. “Relax, goddess. I'm not going to hurt you.”

He never saw it coming when she leaped up, pulling his dagger from his belt and taking him to the ground beneath her, his own dagger at his throat. She put just enough force behind the blade to bring a drop of blood to the surface.

“You're going to take me out of here.” Her voice was quiet but reinforced with steel. “You're going to take them all out of here. If you do that, I may let you live.”

He stared at her, his blue gaze clashing with hers.

“Will you kill me, goddess?” He reached up slowly, pulling down the scarf. He revealed the most dangerous mouth she'd ever seen. She caught her breath, the knife slipping, bringing another bead of blood. His hand dropped, and she met his eyes again.

“Who are you?” Her heart was beating fast, her breath coming faster. His grin was sinful.

“I'm Kai Zoku.”

Sheridan tried hard not to grin. “Very funny.”

He raised an eyebrow and she sighed.

“Kai Zoku? Japanese for pirate.”

His eyebrows drew together, but after a moment he smiled, and it sped her heart up and pissed her off at the same time. “I never knew!” He sounded delighted, not at all afraid of the woman sitting on his chest with a knife at his throat.

“Get us out of here.” Sheridan could feel her energy flagging, and she used all her strength to keep her hand from shaking.

He nodded.

“Let me up and they can go.” He reached up, the motion too fast for her to see. He caught the dagger at the handle, his hand gentle over hers, but unshakable. “You, goddess, will stay with me.”

Sheridan pulled her hand from his, keeping the dagger and sliding off his chest. She rose, keeping her back to the wall. “What do you want with me? Are you the one paying the trolls to kidnap mythicals?”

He sat up, running a hand through his short dark hair. He rubbed his neck ruefully, wiping the blood on his pants before he climbed to his feet. He was well over six feet tall and broader than even her father, who was the largest man she knew.

“I'm not.” He kept his distance, but she knew he could have disarmed her at any time. “I'm here to return you to your sister.”

She raised an eyebrow but didn't move. Over his shoulder, without turning his back on her, he whistled loudly. Another large man in all black opened the cell, waving the other prisoners out.

“See?” Kai waved as they filed out. “I'm setting you all free.”

Sheridan leaned against the wall, her energy nearly gone. “All but me.”

He shrugged, looking rueful.

“Who hired you?”

His grin was back, cocky and full of unparallelled pride. “You think there's only one Asesino, goddess?”

Sheridan knew her eyes grew wide and she paled in shock. “You work for the Fates?” The dagger clattered to the ground and he reached over, picking it up and sheathing at his waist.

“Am I to be punished?”

Kai shook his head, moving closer and scooping her up, one arm under suddenly weak knees and the other around her shoulders. Her head lay against his shoulder as the last of her energy drained away.

“Sleep, little goddess. No one will hurt you. I swear.”



Links to all platforms can be found at: www.sites.google.com/site/amydeclerckauthor/home/book-links
  



AR DeClerck was born and raised in the mountains of Western North Carolina. She currently resides along the Mississippi in Illinois with her husband, two daughters, two dogs and a wily cat. She is an avid reader, music and tv lover and she works as a dialysis technician to help people with kidney failure lead productive lives. She loves to talk to readers and uses her books to explore the greatest adventure of  all: falling in love.

Links:





Desolation: BOOK I of this series is currently on sale for 0.99!

Monday, June 15, 2015

Overload Flux A Central Galactic Concordance Novel by Carol Van Natta

I've got Carol Van Natta over today with a spaced out bargain of a book. 
For this week only 
(so don't dawdle and stare at Nebulas all day) 
Overload Flux,
A Central Galactic Concordance Novel is
99 Cents
So what's it about, you ask...

Carol Van Natta

Overload Flux

A Central Galactic Concordance Novel
Sci-Fi Romance



Stability has reigned for throughout the Central Galactic Concordance for two hundred years, but trouble is brewing. A new pandemic is affecting hundreds of civilized planets, and someone is stealing the vaccine...

Brilliant crime scene investigator Luka Foxe has a problem. His hidden mental talent is out of control, making him barely able to function in the aftermath of violence, and the body count is rising. The convoluted trail leads to a corrupt pharma industry and the possibility of an illegal planet-sized laboratory. Faced with increasing threats, Luka must rely on an enigmatic, lethal woman he just met, but she has enough secrets to drag a ship down from orbit.

Mairwen Morganthur hides extraordinary skills under the guise of a dull night-shift guard. The last thing she wants is to provide personal security for a hot-shot investigator, or to be plunged into a murky case involving deaths, murderous mercenaries, sabotage, treachery, and the military covert operations division that would love to discover she’s still alive.

Two more lives in a rising death count won’t bother their enemies one bit. Their only hope for survival lies in revealing their dark secrets and, much harder, learning to trust one another.

* Planet: Rekoria * GDAT 3237.026 *
Their footsteps echoed in an empty corridor of Rekoria’s planetary spaceport. Mairwen caught herself touching the outside of her coat pocket that held the wirekey, and ruthlessly controlled herself to keep her uneasiness at bay. Though neither man she accompanied down the tall, wide corridor had said so, she had the feeling they didn’t want to be discovered doing whatever it was they were about to do.

Motion-sensor lighting triggered as they approached each segment. At ninety-four minutes before midnight, the noisy passenger area of the spaceport had been as busy as ever, but the commercial shipping section where they now walked was deserted. Trending galactic headlines and bright vids flashed silently on the continuous overhead displays along the corridors, creating constantly changing lights and shadows. It could have been worse; in the passenger section, the animated displays took up entire walls.

She walked two paces behind the two men, like any average, incurious security guard, and kept her expression blank. Her company uniform and long topcoat passed as conservative corporate wear at a casual glance. As long as no one noticed her heavy boots, she wasn’t likely to draw unwanted attention to their group.

Personal security detail wasn’t her usual assignment. While she did usually work nights, it was mostly as a solo guard or security systems monitor at large industrial complexes in marginal sections of town. This was supposed to be her night off.

She hoped the only reason she’d been chosen for tonight’s activities was because she was a name on a La Plata Security Division “night-shift available” list of dozens, and not because she’d stood out in some way. She’d been careful to stay unremarkable. This was the first time in months she’d allowed herself to open her extraordinary senses even a little, noting and cataloging the distant sounds of automation and the stale scents of people. She shouldn’t be doing it now, but the increasing tension of the two men she was accompanying was contagious.

The older man, Velasco, about her height, was entertained by the flashy wall displays in a variety of languages, and softly repeated the words that caught his attention. He again switched the padded strap of the large forensic kit he was carrying to his other shoulder. Lukasz Foxe, taller than Velasco by a dozen centimeters, stood straighter and carried two bags slung over his right shoulder, a smaller hardcase and a larger curved bag, and had a winter greatcoat over his left arm. He was leaner and clearly in better shape than Velasco. So far, Foxe hadn’t said much.

When she’d received her orders from dispatch to check out a company vehicle, pick up the wirekey and a forensic kit for Foxe from the office, then pick up Velasco from a restaurant and take him to the spaceport—she had assumed she would then remain with the company vehicle while Velasco did… whatever it was he was here to do. Instead, for reasons unknown to her, Velasco had told her to come with him to collect Foxe from the gate of an incoming interstellar ship. The need for her presence certainly wasn’t for her company or conversation, because once they’d entered the brightly lit spaceport, Velasco had all but ignored her. She was relieved. From what she remembered from meeting him once at a company event, he had nothing worth saying.

She’d never met Foxe before tonight. Dispatch’s orders had included his company photo, which didn’t do him justice. Even though he was obviously tired, he was handsome, with light brown skin and wide, angular cheekbones, and wore his casual business clothes with more style than Velasco’s ultra-trendy but unflattering suit.
She was already familiar with Lukasz Foxe’s name. She’d memorized most of the Investigation Division’s investigator names and titles so she’d know whom to avoid. She didn’t want the possible attention that came from being in the orbit of a blue-hot company star. She didn’t know what a High Court-certified forensic reconstruction specialist did, but she had the feeling she was about to find out.

She hadn’t quite figured out what Velasco’s role was. From something he’d said in the first burst of jabbering he’d subjected her to as she drove him to the spaceport, he was with the Security Division of La Plata, but assigned to Investigation. She’d mostly tuned him out for the rest of the trip, choosing instead to focus on traffic, which wasn’t well automated, especially at night. Etonver city drivers were allowed to disable vehicle autopilots, and mostly did, making for bad ground traffic, twenty-five hours a day.

The spaceport corridor split, and they turned toward the section with commercial interior warehouses. When they rounded a corner to the left, Velasco pointed halfway down the hall to a large cargo bay door of opaque flexglass. The logo said “Centaurus Transport” in huge letters. A smaller, human-sized door farther down to the left had the same logo. The two men stopped in front of the bay entryway, and Foxe looked to Velasco.

“Anything from the Port Police?”

One of the benefits of working for a security company was official access codes for police bands. Foxe’s first order after arriving had been to tell Velasco to monitor the frequency from his percomp. It had been Mairwen’s first clue they were expecting trouble.

Velasco activated the company-issued percomp he wore strapped to his wrist. It was a more recent model than hers; night shift tended to get refurbished leftovers. Tech Division had been nagging her to surrender her clunky hardware for an update.

“Nothing,” Velasco said after a moment. Mairwen got the impression he hadn’t been paying attention to it until asked. Fortunately, his assessment was accurate. Even though she hadn’t been ordered to do so, she’d been monitoring the same frequency via live audio sent to the earwire adhered to her jawline, and had heard only two routine communications in the last eleven minutes.

Mairwen was becoming increasingly resentful at being kept off the net as far as what she was being dragged into. She had no idea why investigators from her company were going to the warehouse office or what they expected to find, other than something that would need a forensic kit. Meaning it was more than a simple slice by interstellar jackers or some ground-based theft crew. But she couldn’t ask without drawing unwanted attention to herself, so she stayed quiet. It was one of the few times she’d ever wished she was a telepath. Most telepaths she’d ever met were under the thumb of the Citizen Protection Service, and she knew the steep price of that all too well.



Carol Van Natta is an independent author and playwright. Her novels include Overload Flux and Minder Rising, the first two books in a new science fiction romance series, and Hooray for Holopticon, a retro science fiction comedy. 
She shares her Fort Collins, CO home with a mad scientist and various cats. Any violations of the laws of physics in her books is the fault of the cats, not the mad scientist.

Legal Space Stalking: