I just posted the newest episode of the Space Dog Podcast that about the Art of Novel Creation. Here’s the details:

The newest Space Dog Podcast has a panel called The Art of Novel Creation with Peter V. Brett, Suzanne Church, Jim C. Hines, and Jim Frenkel. It’s freely available at the SFOHA’s Space Dog Podcast site.

Also from ConFusion 2011 are these two recordings:

The Great Propeller Beanie War:

What are the issues of yesteryear in Science Fiction that seemed important at the time but now seem passe?

(Joel Zakem, Mike Resnick, Rick Jackson, Michael ‘FREON’ Andaluz, and Larry Tucker)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

MP3

Transhumanism/Singularity:

Will the future spin out of control? Will we reach a point of such rapid technological progress that our limited biological brains cannot comprehend it? Vernor Vinge and Ray Kurzweill defined this concept, and we’re going to to talk about the subject.

(Richard Herrell, Aubrey de Grey, and Ben Best)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

MP3

Enjoy!

Listen to them here and/or visit the sites.

They can both be listened to at the Science Fiction Oral History Association site.

And the Space Dog Podcast is at SpaceDogPodcast.com

Just did a guest spot on the SFFaudio Podcast #84. Check it out. Host, Jesse Willis talks recent arrivals and new releases with Paul W. Campbell, Luke Burrage, Gregg Margarite and myself. I get to plug the Space Dog Podcast and a forthcoming Robert Silverberg multi-volume collection of award winning fiction that I’ll be publishing. Let’s of stuff in this one.

I just posted the newest Space Dog Podcast with Scott Westerfeld. I just recorded this last month at my local Borders Books. Check it out at the Space Dog Podcast site.

I told myself today is the day I have to get back to blogging so here I am. Don’t you love when you got a lot of open projects and you’re being pulled in a million directions? Actually it’s not that bad. I’m not whining, honest. But I tend to let the blogging go by the wayside and concentrate on other stuff. But no more. At least I hope. Since I haven’t done an update in awhile I’ve got a lot of newsy things and share with you about what Wonder eBooks have been up to. But that would take one massive blog entry. So instead I’ll tell about what I’m about to work on.

SFFaudio.com does an annual challenge for every day people (yes, like you) to create an audiobook. SFFaudio’s editor, Jesse Willis, asked me if I had any stories that I could send his way. I was happy to oblige. So as soon I publish this I’m going to get them ready. The stories will be available in EPUB and PDF formats. Here are the titles:

Defense Mech by Ray Bradbury (from The Lost Bradbury: Forgotten Tales by Ray Bradbury)
The Green Girl by Jack Williamson
Daughters of Earth by Judith Merrill (From the Shrine of Temptation and Other Stories)
See You at the Morgue by Lawrence Blochman

Been awhile since I posted here which may make you think I don’t care anymore.  It’s more of a priority issue. When I’m working on so many new things, my blogging (and all social media) tends to fall off the table. From time to time I have to recommit myself to these aspects. For anybody with their own blogs I highly recommend you don’t do this. But I’m sure you already know that.

Another aspect I that I haven’t liked about this blog is that it became a series of new releases posting for my business, Wonder Publishing Group. Nothing is wrong with this except that I was duplicating the material that was over on the WPG. And once again, not much else. I plan I still announcing new releases here but in a briefer way with links to the WPG site for more information.

Let me tell you the eBooks are still being released and one of the new exciting things I’ve been working on is getting the a new eBook store up and running. My goal is to have it opened by the end of this month.

Another thing I’m working on is a new podcast that will also be out this month. So lots going on and I promise to be back soon.

One new eBook this week from Wonder Publishing Group by Science Fiction legend, Murray Leinster.  Here’s an excerpt from the wikipedia entry for this novel, The Forgotten Planet:

The “forgotten” planet had been seeded for life, first with microbes and later with plants and insects. A third expedition, intended to complete the seeding with animals, never occurred. Over the millennia the insects and plants grew to gigantic sizes. The action of the novel describes the fight for survival by descendants of a crashed spaceship as they battle wolf-sized ants, flies the size of chickens, and gigantic flying wasps.

The Forgotten Planet by Murray Leinster

KINDLE | FICTIONWISE | IPAD (coming soon)

The Forgotten Planet by Murray Leinster

NATURE’S MISLAID MADHOUSE! Beneath dense gray clouds through which no sun shone lay a forgotten planet. It was a nightmare world of grotesque and terrifying animal-plant life. Gigantic beetles, spiders, bugs and ants filled the putrid, musty earth–ready to kill and devour anything in sight. There were men amidst this horror–men who cringed and ran from the ravening monsters and huddled in the mushroom forests at night. Burl was one of these creatures. But one day inspira-tion hit Burl. He would find a weapon–he would fight back. And with this idea the first step was taken in man’s most desperate flight for freedom in this most horrible of all worlds. But it was only a first step.

Groovy, four new eBooks titles from Wonder Publishing Group.

The Graveyard Rats and Other Stories by Henry Kuttner

AMAZON KINDLE | FICTIONWISE

The Graveyard Rats and Other Stories by Henry Kuttner

Old Masson had a secret– One of Salem’s oldest and most decrepit cemeteries was put in Old Masson’s charge, but he didn’t mind–he was more than sufficiently compensated by the treasures the newly departed wholeheartedly offered him. Unfortunately, he always seemed to have to work harder to earn his keep, for he had an unusual rival to match: rats! The critters, large as cats, often took whole bodies out of the coffins and into some dark, sinister place–where it is rumored that ghouls and evil creatures worse than the rats dwell. Old Masson never worried, though; these were, after all, just rumors–and they were, after all, just rats. Or were they? Also contains the stories: THE EGO MACHINE, WHERE THE WORLD IS QUIET, PROBLEM WITH ETHICS, WHAT HATH ME?, and the classic HOME IS THE HUNTER.

.

.

.

.

Cropper’s Cabin by Jim Thompson

AMAZON KINDLE | FICTIONWISE

Cropper's Cabin by Jim Thompson

Tommy Carver was a raw nerve, an angry young Okie sharecropper. Sharing the narrow confines of a hot and steamy cabin with a violent father. But his stepmother was the one that was really pushing his buttons. And her affections were way beyond maternal. The heat of the situation was making Tommy boil over. It was just a matter of time before he’d do something he regretted.

.

..

.

.

.

.

.

The Planetary Adventures of Eric John Stark by Leigh Brackett

AMAZON KINDLE | FICTIONWISE

The Planetary Adventures of Eric John Stark

He is Eric John Stark, known far and wide around the galaxy because of his many exploits and unparalleled fearlessness. But he is also called N’Chaka, Man-Without-a-Tribe. Born and raised in the savage surroundings of Mercury, and then reclaimed by his fellow Earthmen after they have destroyed his tribe and home, Stark spends his life wandering, not staying in one place for long, yet ever and always leaving his mark. From dry and arid Mars with its vampiric Ramas, to red and lush Venus with its psychotic Lhari, and back again to the cold and cruel winter region of Mars and the Gates of Death, Stark fulfills overwhelming deeds of heroism, creating friendships and discovering love, yet still remaining true to his namesake–N’Chaka, Man-Without-A-Tribe.

.

.

.

.

Gunfire at Salt Fork by William Hopson

AMAZON KINDLE | FICTIONWISE

Gunfire at Salt Fork by William Hopson

He had a five-notch past and plenty more room on his gun. Carr was coming back and along the silent dusty street of Salt Fork you could almost smell death in the air. In the gray light of morning the four Kendalls waited for him, gun-hot and swaggering–but thinking, too, of the five dead outlaws strung out down Jonathan Carr’s back trail. The morning grew brighter–and so did the knowledge that by sundown in Salt Fork there would be burying to do.

5 of the top 15 bestselling Science Fiction eBooks at Fictionwise are published by Wonder Publishing Group. How cool is that? Check out all the WPG eBooks at Fictionwise.

8	Venus is a Man’s World and Other Stories [MultiFormat] by William Tenn		Wry, brilliant stories from the late William Tenn. Stories of irony, poignancy, humor and satire. Vampires, time travel and paradoxes, government projects, war, and the battle of the sexes. Stories included are: VENUS IS A MAN’S WORLD, OF ALL POSSIBLE WORLDS, NULL-P, BROOKLYN PROJECT, SHE ONLY GOES OUT AT NIGHT, PROJECT HUSH, ME MYSELF AND I, and RICARDO’S VIRUS. The Science Fiction Encyclopedia ranked Tenn as “one of the genre’s very few genuinely comic, genuinely incisive writers of short fic… more info>> Words: 35884 – Reading Time: 102-143 min. Category: Science Fiction/Humor
	Regular     Club You Pay: $3.49     $2.97
9	Worlds Without End and Other Stories [MultiFormat] by Clifford D. Simak		A link between yesterday and the tomorrow that was here already ? The closer you move to something the farther away it got ? Dreams constructed and maintained by society ? Stranded on an alien world with nobody to talk to except your spaceship ? A world-to-world search for an elusive secret ? The bizarre, weird, strange creations of thing and worlds only Science Fiction Grand Master, Clifford D. Simak could have written ? and make believable. Words: 55262 – Reading Time: 157-221 min. Category: Science Fiction/Fantasy
	Regular     Club List Price: $4.99     $4.24 You Pay: $4.24     $3.60 You Save: 15.03%     27.86%
11	Lorelei of the Red Mist [MultiFormat] by Ray Bradbury, Leigh Brackett		Hugh Starke, space-rat and convict, was being pursued by spacecraft into the unknown parts of Venus. He had just pulled off the largest lone wolf heist in the history of that planet. But now it looked like he was going to pay the ultimate price for his misdeeds. But fate had a strange twist on Starke’s life when he woke up in a different body. A body that was strong and powerful. In a body of a Venusian barbarian named Conan. But was Starke anything more than a puppet in this new body? For he so… more info>> (Published: 1946) Words: 22469 – Reading Time: 64-89 min. Category: Science Fiction/Fantasy
	Regular     Club You Pay: $1.99     $1.69
14	The Green World [MultiFormat] by Hal Clement		Four scientists, one guide–and a dangerous beast following their trail. Nothing unusual from the looks of things, except that they are all in a planet far away from Earth. Robin Lampert, Take Mitsuitei, Hans Krendall and Ndomi Sulewayo, and their guide John McLaughlin, get together to scour the wilds of Viridis and take what scientific information the land can offer. They discover puzzling yet wondrous mysteries, yet little do they know that the the land itself is unwilling to give them the an… more info>> Words: 24823 – Reading Time: 70-99 min. Category: Science Fiction
	Regular     Club You Pay: $2.49     $2.12
15	The Towers of Titan and Other Stories [MultiFormat] by Ben Bova		Five extraordinary stories by one of Science Fiction’s most revered writers. THE TOWERS OF TITAN–Across the frozen cliffs they loomed–the unbelievably ancient towers with the unimaginable engines deep inside them still pouring out their endless power. Dr. Sidney Lee, back from living death, vowed to find the secret of the Towers of Titan! THE NEXT LOGICAL STEP–Ordinarily the military least wants to have the others know the final details of their war plans. But, logically, there would be times… more info>> Words: 44667 – Reading Time: 127-178 min. Category: Science Fiction
	Regular     Club You Pay: $2.99     $2.54

Here at Brain Plucker we are way too cerebral to talk about sex, right? As some of the regular readers of this blog knows, I design most of the art work for Wonder Publishing Group by re-purposing older artwork in the public domain. WPG is publishing a story as an eBook called Lorelei of the Red Mist by Ray Bradbury and Leigh Brackett. There’s a wonderful painting by Frank Kelly Freas that graced a magazine called Tops is Science Fiction.

Tops In Science Fiction, Fall 1953

This was actually the second printing of the story. I would of repurposed this art if it wasn’t already reused for a excellent Leigh Brackett collection by Haffner Press called Lorelei of the Red Mist: Planetary Romances. I didn’t want to create any confusion between that title and my own published version. So decided I needed to look elsewhere. Lorelei of the Red Mist first appeared in the Summer, 1946 issue of Planet Stories. The cover to that issue left me uninspired. I knew I could find something better than that. I then found an eBay auction that had a photo from the interior art from the already mentioned Tops in Science Fiction magazine. The interior was also by Frank Kelly Freas. Let me stop here to say that I think that Frank Kelly Freas was an exceptional artist in the 40s, 50s, and 60s. He most famously known for his paintings, but I love his interior illustrations for the old SF mags. So back to the picture from the eBay auction. I bid and lost on that issue. I bid and lost another auction for that issue. I decided to colorize the image from the auction. Now this is the first thing interior artwork that I colorized. But I still consider myself a dilettante as a colorist. I can’t look at a black and white drawing and really visualize its completion. In a sense this really exciting when the work starts taking shape. The first thing I did was to make the image more symmetrical.

Interior Art from Tops in SF. Image was found from an eBay Auction picture.

I copied the layer and flipped it, did some cutting and cloning and merging to create the  final B&W image. I then started colorizing it. The female represents Rann, an ivory colored Venusian with aquamarine hair. As I cleaned up the image I noticed how phallic the post she was bound to looked. Yes that ring she bound to makes most body piercings seem mild (ouch!). I had the art just about nailed down when I showed it to a friend. I pointed out the phallicness of the art. And he noticed that the base was very vagina-like. In fact the phallic was going right through it. What have a created? By making the base symmetrical, I created one f**king awesome cover. Well before writing this post I had to figure out what the opposite of phallic is called. I have to admit to wondering this before. The best word I’ve found was “yonic”. Which means anything that can be described as vagina-like. Who knew?

Black and White and Symmetrical

Colorized- (ouch! that ring had got to hurt)

The Final Cover (coming March 2010)

Look for the eBook in March!