News & Announcements

AetherCon VI

November 11, 2017 by robmcclel 1 Comment

A neat bit of news: I’m moderating some guest Q&A panels at AetherCon VI, which is in full swing now.

AetherCon is an all-online convention where participants can roll from one panel room to another, visit events, and partake in moderated gaming sessions with game masters from every time zone.

In my case, I’ll be talking to representatives from some really neat game manufacturers. There will be five separate Q&A sessions:

Saturday Sessions

1:00 PM

Guests: Mortis Logan, Paul Reid

Ral Partha Europe

2:00 PM

Guests: Chris Garland

Timeline, LTD.

Sunday Sessions

12:00 PM

Guests: Josh Harrison, Andrew Ragland, Mary Harrison

FASA Games

1:00 PM

Guests: Rodney Sloan, Bob Storrar

Rising Phoenix Games (South Africa)

2:00 PM

Guest: Justin Andrew Mason

Paths to Adventure (Big Book of Maps)

I’d love to see you there!

My First Superhero Story

November 2, 2017 by robmcclel 2 Comments

Disclosure: I’m a rabid fan of the MCU. I love the acting, the writing, the sets, the costumes, the whole shebang. But other than a brief flirtation with the New Mutants in the late ‘80s, I’ve never really collected Marvel’s comics. I know the characters and I followed the grand story arcs, but I’m not feeling the burn the way I did when I was in college.

So when editor Steve Beaulieu asked me to write a story for his superhero anthology, Collateral Damage, I accepted.

[book_cover not_author_book=”collateral-damage-superheroes-and-vile-villains-3″ align=”right” size-keyword=”medium”]Then, I panicked.

I thought: what am I doing here? I don’t know superheroes! I can barely read the print in a comic book any more. How do you write a story about…?

Wait a minute.

As I thought about it, I realized something: Maybe I can’t write about a superhero. But I can write about the people who deal with them. The normal people. The humans. Even the supers who never made the grade.

And that’s what I did.

My story is titled “Fixing Sniper Girl” and it’s a bit of X-Men meets Gunslinger Girl. A dude with language superpowers retires from active duty, to be called back when his old team—a real super-group—is unable to deal with a high tech assassin. It was terrific fun to write and it’s available from the Amazon store right this minute. Pick up a copy of Collateral Damage if you feel so inclined, and a review would not go amiss. And if you’re really looking for a good time, pick up a copy of HaHaHa! the supervillain companion volume. Above all, enjoy!

Trusting Your News Feed

January 31, 2017 by robmcclel Leave a Comment

10 Investigative Reporting Outlets to Follow

January 13, 2017

This post first appeared on BillMoyers.com.

We’ve just started a new series highlighting some of the best, in-depth investigative journalism that is uncovering real news, revealing wrongdoing and fomenting change. As a compendium, here are 10 investigative reporting outlets that are worth following if they’re not already on your radar.

1. ProPublica — Founded 10 years ago by a former managing editor of The Wall Street Journal, ProPublica is a nonprofit investigative news site based in New York City. In 2010 ProPublica was the first online publication to win a Pulitzer Prize and has earned two more since, as well as a long list of other prestigious awards.

2. The Center for Public Integrity (CPI) — An early player in the nonprofit investigative space, CPI has been around for close to 30 years. Its reporters have won dozens of journalism awards, including a Pulitzer in 2014, for its investigations of money in politics, national security, health care reform, business and the environment.

3. The Center For Investigative Reporting (CIR) — Founded 40 years ago in the San Francisco Bay Area, CIR is a nonprofit that has partnered for years with other outlets to reach a wide audience in print, on television, on radio and online. It collaborates with PRX Radio to produce Reveal, the investigative radio program and podcast. The Reveal website is now home to all of CIRs investigative content.

4. Frontline — Launched more than 30 years ago, Frontline is television’s most consistent and respected investigative documentary program. Its documentaries are broadcast on PBS and are available online, along with original reporting.

5. Mother Jones — Mother Jones, founded in 1976, is a reader-supported, nonprofit news organization headquartered in San Francisco with bureaus in Washington, DC and New York City. The site includes investigative reporting as well as general reporting on topics including politics, climate change and education.

6. The Intercept — The Intercept is a news organization launched in 2014 by legal and political journalist Glenn Greenwald, investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill and documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras.

7. Real Clear Investigations — Real Clear Investigations, which launched last fall, is the new nonprofit, investigative arm of Real Clear Politics. It is mostly an aggregator of investigative reporting, but has also begun conducting original investigations.

8. The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) — ICIJ is a nonprofit offshoot of the Center for Public Integrity that began 20 years ago. It is a global network of more than 190 investigative journalists in more than 65 countries who work together to investigate cross-border issues including crime, corruption and abuse of power.

9. Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) — IRE is a grass-roots, nonprofit, membership organization that has been providing tips, training and conferences for investigative reporters since 1975. Its blog, Extra! Extra! showcases a wide variety of watchdog journalism.

10. BuzzFeed — Whatever you think about its decision to release the Trump dossier earlier this week (journalists are divided in their opinions), BuzzFeed has a growing investigative team and body of work worth attention, but it’s not always easy to find on the site. If you want to know what the team is up to you can follow its editor, Mark Schoofs, @Schoofsfeed on Twitter.

And Now, A Singularity!

August 25, 2015 by Jon Frater 1 Comment

The Legacy Human by Susan Kay Quinn

What would you give to live forever? Seventeen-year-old Elijah Brighton wants to become an ascender—a post-Singularity human/machine hybrid—after all, they’re smarter, more enlightened, more compassionate, and above all, achingly beautiful. But Eli is a legacy human, preserved and cherished for his unaltered genetic code, just like the rainforest he paints. When a fugue state possesses him and creates great art, Eli miraculously lands a sponsor for the creative Olympics. If he could just master the fugue, he could take the gold and win the right to ascend, bringing everything he’s yearned for within reach… including his beautiful ascender patron. But once Eli arrives at the Games, he finds the ascenders are playing games of their own. Everything he knows about the ascenders and the legacies they keep starts to unravel… until he’s running for his life and wondering who he truly is.

The Legacy Human is the first in Susan Kaye Quinn’s new young adult science fiction series that explores the intersection of mind, body, and soul in a post-Singularity world… and how technology will challenge us to remember what it means to be human.

Amazon

Praise for The Legacy Human

“This book is Hunger Games (without the violence or controversy) meets Divergent.”

“This story is so intense I felt I couldn’t get a proper breath.”

“Science fiction with philosophical depth!”

The Duality Bridge

What does it mean to be human? Elijah Brighton is the face of the Human Resistance Movement. He’s the Olympic-level painter who refused an offer of immortality from the ascenders—the human/machine hybrids who run the world—in solidarity with the legacy humans who will never get a chance to live forever. Too bad it’s all a complicated web of lies. Worse, Eli’s not even entirely human. Few know about the ascenders’ genetic experiments that left him… different. Fewer know about the unearthly fugue state that creates his transcendent art—as well as a bridge that lets him speak to the dead. But the Resistance is the one place he can hide from the ascender who knows everything the fugue can do. Because if Marcus finds him, he’ll either use Eli for his own nefarious purposes… or destroy him once and for all. The Duality Bridge is the second book in the Singularity series and the sequel to The Legacy Human. This thrilling new young adult science fiction series explores the intersection of mind, body, and soul in a post-Singularity world.

Amazon

Author Susan Kay Quinn

Susan Kaye Quinn is the author of the Singularity Series, the bestselling Mindjack Trilogy, and the Debt Collector serial, as well as other speculative fiction novels and short stories. Her work has appeared in the Synchronic anthology, the Telepath Chronicles, the AI Chronicles, and has been optioned for Virtual Reality by Immersive Entertainment. Former rocket scientist, now she invents mind powers, dabbles in steampunk, and dreams of the Singularity. Mostly she sits around in her PJs in awe that she gets to write full time.

Website * Facebook * Twitter

$25 Blog Tour Giveaway

$25 Amazon eGift Card or Paypal Cash

Ends 9/6/15

Open only to those who can legally enter, receive and use an Amazon.com eGift Card or Paypal Cash. Winning Entry will be verified prior to prize being awarded. No purchase necessary. You must be 18 or older to enter or have your parent enter for you. The winner will be chosen by rafflecopter and announced here as well as emailed and will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. This giveaway is in no way associated with Facebook, Twitter, Rafflecopter or any other entity unless otherwise specified. The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning. Giveaway was organized by Kathy from I Am A Reader and sponsored by the author. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW.

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A New Book Cover

July 23, 2014 by Jon Frater Leave a Comment

I’ve been pontificating about a project of mine here for years. I’ve called it the Blockade series because it is a planned hard Sci-fi series about a ring of thingies surrounding the solar system. The first book is titled Article 9, and I’m almost ready to hit the publish button on it.

I’m going through my final pass of the manuscript, managing tiny but important details like chapter length, proper quotation marks, making sure details make sense, etc. The good news is that I fully expect to upload this monster to the world in the next week or so.

And because a picture is worth a thousand words, here is the book cover we got for Article 9. Look at it . . .

The artwork was created by the enormously talented Chrysoula Artemis and it was worth every penny. Chrys is a joy to work with and had ideas rolling around her brain even before she’d gotten more than a fraction into the book itself. The title font is all kinds of awesome, to say nothing of the detail that went into that 9. The rivets, the scoring on the metal, the lines where the plates join . . . brilliant.

And if you’re really ambitious, take a look at the red tipped nose cone and the fins on that missile that’s about to slam into the moon.

We go live very soon. In the mean time, I haz cover!

My Books

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Book Announcement

June 25, 2014 by Jon Frater Leave a Comment

And now, another book announcement.

You may remember my plug for Theme-Thology: New Myths I shared a few weeks ago. That was a cool book. Even better, I’m actually in this one. It’s the fourth book in HDWP Books’ Theme-Thology series of anthologies, titled Real Worlds Unreal, where each story takes place in a real location, but something weird takes place.

The book is due for a July 1 release, and I will link to sites where you can purchase it once it’s available.

My Books

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A Shameless Plug

March 26, 2014 by Jon Frater Leave a Comment

As I’ve mentioned here before, I’m trying to get back into the game of fiction writing. Along the way, I’ve met plenty of awesome people who got involved in the game after I left, or never left and went on to do amazing things. Charles Barouch is one of the latter. We worked together years ago when we both wrote game review columns for Gateways magazine, which has long since disappeared into the mists of time.

Charles now had his own small press, HDWP Books, and is currently producing an intriguing short fiction series called “Theme-Thologies.” The idea is simple: create a theme for a book then find the best stories possible to fill the space.

I’m not in any of the books currently on the shelf but I am working to get a piece into one of the future anthologies. I do believe in the project and the staff and writers involved, however, so I’ll be putting some cash down for these titles. You may consider doing the same. If nothing else, let’s share this far and wide and get some exposure for these guys.

Charles’s post as it appeared on his G+ account earlier today reads as follows:

I need $6
You are all nice people. I’m sure if I asked you for $6, just because I needed it — or even wanted it — a lot of you would reach into your pocket. I’m not asking for me. Well, not exactly for me…
Here’s my problem: I need to jumpstart the sales on Theme-Thology. These are really good books but we aren’t visible enough. Can you spare $6 to help 18 authors and artists?A Promise: From now until April 21st, if you buy the first two Theme-Thologies (total: $5.98) and post a review of either of them (on Amazon, B&N, or Kobo, or GoodReads), I will send you the first eBook from our new science fiction series: Interrogative: Tiago and the Masterless. Just post a link to the review at http://www.hdwpbooks.com/books/thankyou and the book is yours.A Prize: Additionally, from now until April 21st, if you buy any of the first three Theme-Thologies ($2.99 each), I will enter you into a drawing to win one of the following eBooks: one of five different Mike Reeves-McMillan books (City of Masks, Hope and the Patient Man, Hope and the Clever Man, Realmgolds, Gu), A Noble’s Quest by Ryan Toxopeus, Adjacent Fields by Charles Barouch, or The Tower’s Alchemist by Alesha Escobar.
Just buy the Theme-Thology of your choice and post at http://www.hdwpbooks.com/books/thankyou.● Already bought them? Post a review (on Amazon, B&N, or Kobo, or GoodReads) and I will send you the first eBook of our new science fiction series: Interrogative: Tiago and the Masterless and put you in the drawing. Just post a link to the review at http://www.hdwpbooks.com/books/thankyou.● Received the Adjacent Fields signed, limited edition print book at Spectrum 2013? Post a review (on Amazon, B&N, or Kobo, or GoodReads) and I will send you the first eBook of our new science fiction series: Interrogative: Tiago and the Masterless and put you in the drawing. Just post a link to the review at http://www.hdwpbooks.com/books/thankyou.

Full Details Here: http://www.hdwpbooks.com/books/thankyou

Buy if you can, click on one of the share buttons below if you can’t.

Too Cool for Words

February 7, 2007 by Jon Frater Leave a Comment

This is Lara (aka, Mrs. Rogue Scholar, MLS). Lara is a librarian at the NYC Dept. of Health Library. Before she started there, she worked at the EPA Library on Broadway, NYC.

This is Lara’s book, "Fat Chicks Rule: How to Survive in a Thin-Centric World." (I helped write the first chapter.)

And this is Lara’s book being brought into a debate on the floor of the U.S. Senate.

Aren’t you proud? God knows I am.

Anyway, buy the book. Write to Senator James Inholfe, R-Oklahoma, and ask if he supports anti-size discrimination legislation. Or ask him why he hates libraries and the environment (although perhaps not in that order).

Duke U. Press Joins LOCKSS

November 9, 2006 by Jon Frater 1 Comment

An announcment from Duke University Press & Duke Libraries, care of Kimberly Steinle:

For immediate release: Nov. 8, 2006

CONTACT: Mandy Dailey-Berman (Duke University Press, Journals Publicity Coordinator)
mdberman@dukeupress.edu

DUKE UNIVERSITY PRESS, DUKE LIBRARIES TO SUPPORT LONG-TERM STRATEGIES FOR PRESERVING ELECTRONIC SCHOLARLY JOURNAL CONTENT

DURHAM, N.C. — Duke University Press and Duke University Libraries will be participating in Portico and the LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) Alliance, two long-term strategies to preserve electronic scholarly journal content for future scholars, school officials announced Wednesday.

“The mandate to preserve scholarly work is an implicit and critical component of a library’s mission and one that has been vastly complicated by both the shift to electronic publishing and the fiscal challenges that libraries now face,” says Kimberly Steinle, Duke University Press’s library relations manager. “Portico and LOCKSS offer libraries reliable solutions to these problems, securing perpetual access to archived online content, while also eliminating the financial burden of creating an archive.”

Kevin L. Smith, scholarly communication officer at Duke, adds, “We recognize that academic research libraries such as those here at Duke University need to invest in digital repositories that help scholars maintain access to and control of their research product at various stages. Both LOCKSS and Portico represent substantive progress on the broad issue of electronic archiving.”

Portico was launched in 2005 with support from JSTOR, Ithaka, the Library of Congress and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Portico’s mission is to preserve scholarly literature published in electronic form and to ensure that it remains accessible to future generations of
scholars, researchers, and students. In pursuit of this mission, Portico operates a secure, permanent archive of electronic scholarly journals. To date, more than 5,200 journals have been promised to the Portico archive, and a broad range of scholarly publishers and libraries have chosen to participate in Portico as an important component of their archiving strategy.

Initiated by Stanford University Libraries, LOCKSS is open source software that provides librarians with an easy and inexpensive way to collect, store, preserve, and provide access to the local copy of authorized content they purchase. Running on standard desktop hardware and requiring almost no technical administration, LOCKSS provides accessible copies of e-journal content as it is published.

You can take a look at what LOCKSS is planning here. Portico’s got the same basic idea, but there are differences, so take at look at them, too.