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ANNOUNCEMENT/GIVEAWAY: Nectar and Ambrosia, by E.M. Hamill

Nectar and Ambrosia

QSFer E.M. Hamill has a new MM/MF Urban Fantasy in her Amaranthine Inheritance series: Nectar and Ambrosia. Callie, a Classics major, flees home to protect her family from a monster straight out of mythology. Visions lead her to Nectar and Ambrosia: the weirdest pub on Earth, where inter-dimensional travelers with attention seeking issues get drunk in between the A-list celebrity lives they create. They can’t pretend to be gods anymore—not since a treaty with the current Supreme Deity promising they won’t intervene in human affairs. The Doorkeeper of this threshold, Florian, rides herd on the rowdy Amaranthine and offers her … Read more

ARCHEOLOGY: Ancient Europeans had a Thing for Balls

stone age balls - Live Science

Some of the most enigmatic human-made objects from Europe’s late Stone Age — intricately carved balls of stone, each about the size of a baseball — continue to baffle archaeologists more than 200 years after they were first discovered. More than 500 of the enigmatic objects have now been found, most of them in northeast Scotland, but also in the Orkney Islands, England, Ireland and one in Norway. Archaeologists still don’t know the original purpose or meaning of the Neolithic stone balls, which are recognized as some of the finest examples of Neolithic art found anywhere in the world. But … Read more

Me Me Monday!

Me Me Monday

Welcome to M3: ME ME MONDAY at our FB discussion group – your chance to pop in and tell us about your latest success. Have a new book or short story coming out? Let us know. Just sell something? Let us know so we can cheer you on. HOW IT WORKS: I’ll pin this topic to the top of our FB discussion page for the day. –Please post your announcement as a separate post so we can comment on yours specifically –Check out the other posts and congratulate and share them too! And congratulations!!!

FOR READERS: Describing the Perps

blank face - pixabay

FOR READERS Today’s reader topic comes from QSFer Tinnean: How important to the reader is a physical description of the characters, i.e. hair/eye color? How much detail do you want/need to visualize them and the story? Writers: This is a reader chat – you are welcome to join it, but please do not reference your own works directly. Thanks! Join the chat

SPACE: Are Black Holes Actually Colliding Wormholes?

black hole - pixabay

When two wormholes collide, they could produce ripples in space-time that ricochet off themselves. Future instruments could detect these gravitational “echoes,” providing evidence that these hypothetical tunnels through space-time actually exist, a new paper suggests. The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) has already detected space-time ripples, called gravitational waves, emanating from merging black holes — discoveries that led to the Nobel Prize in 2017. But while LIGO’s detection was just one of many observations supporting the existence of black holes, these exotic objects still pose theoretical problems. For instance, they seem to be inconsistent with the laws of quantum mechanics. … Read more

ANNOUNCEMENT/GIVEAWAY: grydscaen: dark, by Natsuya Uesugi

grydscaen dark

Natsuya Uesugi has a new book out in his dystopian sci fi series grydscaen: A clandestine meet occurs in the Echelons under cover of darkness where Top Secret intel on the stock market changes hands. The insider tip gets the gothic hacker Jester engaged in a high tech game. Parliament votes to lower harsh stock market regulations fueling the Corporation’s bottom line, a payoff from ministers who were propped up by illegal corporate campaign donations. Ordered by Jester, the teenage hacker Rom infiltrates the largest high volume brokerage house causing wild gyrations in trading. When Jester triggers an insidious stock … Read more

ANNOUNCEMENT: The Rise of Dark Flame, by Damien Benoit-Ledoux

The Rise of Dark Flame - Damien Benoit-Ledoux

QSFer Damien Benoit-Ledoux has a new MM superhero/urban fantasy book out in his Guardians series – The Rise of Dark Flame: Alienated best friends Quinn McAlester and Blake Hargreaves silently pass one another in the hallways of Portsmouth High School, no longer trading friendly glances or warm smiles, all thanks to Agent Victor Kraze, the man who succeeded in tearing them apart and beguiling Blake to join The Order, a secret organization with evil motives and controversial goals. Every day, uncelebrated superhero Quinn masquerades as an ordinary teenager at home, work, and at school, hanging out with his dads, close … Read more

SCIENCE: Stephen Hawking’s Family Will Beam His Voice Toward a Black Hole

black hole - pixabay

Stephen Hawking’s family plans to broadcast a recording of his voice toward a black hole while his ashes are interred at Westminster Abbey, according to a report in the Telegraph. Hawking’s most important work was on the structure of black holes. The famous physicist showed in 1974 that, contrary to popular belief at the time, black holes do in fact emit radiation. So it seems appropriate that a bit of radiation associated with Einstein will make its way back into a black hole. [Stephen Hawking: A Physics Icon Remembered in Photos] His daughter, Lucy Hawking, told the British press in … Read more

FOR READERS: Author v. Book

fight - pixabay

FOR READERS Today’s reader topic comes from QSFer Amy Leibowitz Mitchell: Do you ever have trouble separating the writer from their work? For example, have you had a book you didn’t love, but then you met the author and wanted to give it another try because you liked the person? Or the opposite, you couldn’t read an author’s work anymore because of their personal behavior or attitudes? Please do not mention names or titles. Writers: This is a reader chat – you are welcome to join it, but please do not reference your own works directly. Thanks! Join the chat