Royce Sears-Sci-Fi/Fantasy Author

It's a wet and rainy day in West Virginia, but we ventured into the murky weather to visit the Huntington, WV StinkFest today. Yes, I said StinkFest. Ramps! For those of you who are unfamiliar with them, ramps: Allium tricoccum  (commonly known as  ramp ,  ramps ,  spring onion ,  ramson ,  wild leek ,  wood leek , and  wild garlic ) [2]  is a  North American  species of  wild onion  widespread across eastern  Canada  and the eastern  United States . [1]  Many of these English names are used for other  Allium  species, particularly  Allium ursinum . After visiting StinkFest, we stopped by the Flea Market in Milton, WV. Much to my delight, I found two vintage Anne McCaffery novels at one of the used book vendors.  Sassinak - Circa 1990 Crystal Singer - Circa 1982 Score!

We dread query letters, synopses, and trying to get the pacing of the novel to flow ...just right. Here are some of my thoughts and what I've accumulated so far.  These three words have been my entire existence for a few months now! Pulling my hair out? What hair? It's gone already. Queries: What have I learned? I've learned a great deal, actually. Keep it short! When we begin this process, many of us start with the common phrase, "Query letter? What's that?" So we Google it...ah, Google my good friend... and our wise GoogleBot Guru tells us that a Query letter is a one-page letter wherein we pitch our book to an agent.- No sweat- One page. I can do that. Umm.. not as easy as it looks.  Upon further research- and after a few rejections- we find that one-page stuff is nonsense. An agent doesn't want to read a whole page about your book. They want your book in a nutshell--an easily crackable nutshell with the meat of the nut in a ready to eat ...

White House Budget Plan Would Slash Science Why can't we have nice things? The article above references Trump's 2018 Budget proposal, "Although details are skimpy, Trump’s $1.15 trillion budget proposal, released March 16, would make national security the top priority." National Security as the top priority? Imagine that... In a country that spends more on national Washington Post defense than any other country in the world. We live in a country where our leaders are using the media to fuel people's fears, driving the country toward nationalism, populism, racism, and isolationism. So in order to do this, they remove the very underpinnings of what has made our country a world leader in the past...science. Instead of leading the industrialized world, we're taking steps toward the dark ages. We'll decrease funding to public schools, cut science programs, and keep the American people in the dark. Why? So they can make us more afraid. An uneducated...

So, maybe I'm not caught up on the terminology but while doing some research last night I discovered a new term (new to me at least). OOPA-- "Out of Place Artifacts"-- How cool is that? Very cool actually. Now, many of these are explainable, either via natural phenomenon or some other human intervention, but there are a few that caught my eye. 1.)  Mount Baigong Pipes Mount Baigong is located in China. It is described as an environment that is not suited for human life. Interesting so far, right? There are pipes laid throughout the mountainside that lead http://ancients-bg.com/mystery-of-the-baigong-pipes/ to a nearby lake, Lake Tousu. If that weren't interesting enough, the pipes run in organized patterns along the shores of the lake, into the lake, and deep into the mountain--a mountain that has an arguably pyramidal shape to it with three distinct entrances. The largest of these pipes is 40cm in diameter. Samples were sent to a local smelter and deter...

http://epicofevolution.com This article, found on Science News , showcases the wild and unpredictable nature of life. What is life? Life: a condition of growth, reproduction, and adaptation to the environment through internal changes. Such a sterile definition of something so precious and beautiful. Life is a complex process that we still don't understand. Somehow, millions of years ago, just the right combination of amino acids and proteins came together in the primordial soup of Earth to form the building blocks of what we are today. How did it all happen? That's one of the great existential questions that most either ignore, take on faith, or leave it up to the scientific community to find the answer. Personally, I fall into the last category. Will we ever know that answer? Maybe...hopefully... but until then we can use the tried-and-true method of establishing scientific understanding, the scientific method, to come to a better understanding of the FACTS . h...

As a long-time lover of Norse Mythology, I have to say I'm excited about Neil Gaiman's new book . All mythology - be it Norse, Greek, Egyptian, Celtic, Roman, or Christian - has a special context and relevance to the stories that helped define us as a species. Norse Mythology holds a special place for me because of the very personal connection I have always felt to the stories, culture, and indeed the Norse Gods themselves. For those who share my interest and love of Norse Mythology, I thought I might share some other books I have enjoyed over the years that bring deeper insights into the culture, stories, and traditions of our Nordic ancestors. The Norse Myths by Kevin Crossley Holland Myths of the Norsemen H.A. Guerber Saga of the Volsungs The Poetic Edda  (Free on Amazon) The Prose Edda  (Free on Amazon) Beowulf  (Free on Amazon) Saga Six Pack   

I remember watching the Challenger Tragedy unfold thirty-one years ago while sitting in class at Ivydale Elementary School. We visited the Challenger Memorial while on a school trip to Washington, D.C. It was the first large-scale tragedy I remember witnessing, and it had a profound effect on the younger me. The novel I recently completed, entitled "Humanity First," is set in the year 2125 and features an asteroid mining ship named Challenger. Her Captain, Owen Hudson, is a descendant of one of the Challenger astr onauts. Without realizing the date, I sent query letters to a few literary agents yesterday and early this morning. The dedication reads: This book is dedicated to all of humanity, to every man, woman, and child who rises above the challenges of life on a daily basis. Specifically, this book is meant to be a celebration of the men and women of NASA. It is their courage and commitment to the advancement of the human race that has taken us this far, though t...

The idea for this story came from a friend during a New Years Eve Party. When she said something about this, I immediately asked her if I could use the idea. Sit Down to Stand Up By Royce Sears The grocery store clerk handed me the receipt for my purchase and, as usual, I folded it up and stuck it in my purse without a thought. There weren’t many items at the end of the checkout counter, but the young bagger certainly took his time. He stared at me while placing my items in the flimsy plastic bags. Yes, I was wearing a short skirt and a slightly revealing blouse, but that didn’t give him the right to brazenly stare at me like I was a piece of meat or inspect me like a piece of meat in the display case at the back of the store.  It bothered me, but it’s sad to say that I was accustomed to it. Being a reasonably attractive twenty-eight-year-old woman, I tend to draw the seemingly ravenous stares of young men and older men alike. To the younger men, I’m the ‘hot mi...

The great William Shakespeare is quoted in "As You Like It," "All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players;" Maybe in Shakespeare's day the world was a stage, but today it has become a sports arena, but only the wealthy and the powerful men and women are players. We live in a world obsessed with winning and losing, as evidenced by the illustrious 'commander-in-chief' set to take office in just a few short days. To quote a recent comment from my social media feed: "Up until Trump actually won...the entire country, including myself, due mostly to a liberal, ineffective media, thought that Hillary was a "shoo-in." Once this did NOT happen, all levels of crazy ensued! Everyone needs to "buck-up, buttercup" and deal with it. All of us lose! In fact, in life, we all lose way more than we win. The view only changes in "first" place. The rest of us are usually viewing the backside of at least on...

As they say, a new year has begun, and with it comes all the challenges, joys, and sorrows of the past year.  Many of us wake up this morning with new year's resolutions to do better than we did last year, to challenge ourselves in new ways, and to make this year a better one that the last, but we face a new and unpredictable future on the horizon. Well, every new year is new and unpredictable you say, but this year holds many changes that I think are going to surprise a great many of us. On January 20, 2017, we stand to bring a new leader into the office of President of the United States. This new leader, a thin-skinned and volatile man with no experience in government, has already proven himself to be wildly unpredictable. His cabinet picks have more net wealth than one-third of the American population. He has selected people to fill these positions that also have no experience in government and many have, in the past, taken completely opposing stances to the jobs they have bee...

I'm a sucker for a good Science Fiction movie, and I always have been. Arrival  was not just good Science Fiction, but great Science Fiction. Language shapes who we are and how we think. It not only defines our culture, but it defines our species. What we communicate, and how we communicate it, defines who and what we are to those around us. In Arrival, we see the use of the word 'weapon' change the entire nature of the conversation almost instantaneously. We see the world diving into chaos because of the arrival of these alien craft. We see a church setting itself ablaze, mass hysteria, looting, rioting, and wide-spread panic worldwide. Would we react this way to an actual event? Probably, and I imagine it would be even worse than what we see in the movie. Why? As Arrival points out, we're a divided species. We're divided along race, gender, nationality, religion, and a multitude of other divisions. We've seen these issues arise time and time again, and ...

The Holidays are approaching fast , this is the thought I woke up with this morning as I tried to go back to sleep, despite the eighty-pound dog taking up most of my leg room. What does a thought like that really mean to someone like me? I'm former Navy, and I think I remember one or two Holiday seasons where I wasn't on duty. I am now a Registered Nurse, and my thirteen-year-old son lives 400 miles away, with his Mother. The Holidays do not carry the same meaning for him anymore, not at this age. I volunteer to work during the Holidays so my co-workers, young mothers with young children, can spend the Holidays with their children. I think that's only fair. Their children are only young once. They should get to spend the Holidays with their children, and I'll gladly work over the Holidays for them so their kids get to have Mommy at home. I mean, what kid wants to spend Christmas Day waiting for Mom to get home from work so they can open their presents? And la...

How Do We Explain it to Them? I honestly never imagined I would be writing something like this today, so I'm writing completely off the cuff here. We as a people, as a nation, stand shocked today by the revelations of last night's election results. I had the unfortunate circumstance of watching this whole thing play out while I was at work (the whole time I was wishing I could be drinking something very high in alcohol content because, Damn!) I see folks on social media, on both sides of the fence, almost equally shocked. The "Wow, I can't believe he actually won! I wanted him to win, but I didn't actually think he would..." as well as the "Holy Shit? He actually won? I can't believe my fellow Americans would actually elect this moron!" posts flooded social media this morning. Many of my friends, friends who identify as LGBTQ, friends of color, friends of differing religious viewpoints, and friends who have younger children are terrified of...

This is what our future could be if folks like Franklin Chang Díaz and his team at AdAstra are successful with the integration of their VASMIR engine into our existing space programs. What you see above is a test of the VASMIR engine, taking place here on Earth, but it is designed to function in space. A new rocket engine, big deal, right? We have all kinds of different rocket engines and they all do the same thing, There's not much difference between one rocket engine and another, right? They all push big, heavy things into orbit and make alot of noise while they're doing it. Wrong. The VASMIR engine is a completely new concept that uses a tenth of the fuel of a conventional chemical rocket and produces much more bang for the buck. Additionally, it's not using hydrogen and oxygen or solid rocket fuel but rather an inert, noble gas that is very safe to store and use. How does this make it a good rocket fuel? Isn't rocket fuel supposed to make lots of noise a...

Word is defined as "a speech sound or series of speech sounds that symbolizes and communicates a meaning usually without being divisible into smaller units capable of independent use" by Webster's Dictionary. It's a dry definition, but it's a definition and a place to start from, really. We use words to communicate our thoughts, beliefs, and ideas to others. (Well duh... thank you for those profound "words" Captain Obvious) Renowned author, Stephen King is quoted in his book  On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft  as saying "What is writing? Writing is telepathy." If writing is telepathy, the sharing of the written word, then speaking is even more so because it is a direct transference of ideas from one person to another rather than an indirect transference via a separate medium. There you have it. Words have power, the power to transfer the ideas that shape our worldview from one person to another. (Kinda deep huh?) Why is this important? We kee...

The film "Frequencies" is summarized as: "In an alternate reality, children learn how lucky they will be (their "frequency"), knowledge which shapes their destiny. The unluckiest boy must unravel the mysteries of free will in order to pursue his forbidden love of the luckiest girl." Sounds simple, right? Just an unlucky boy pursuing a lucky girl. How exciting...another lucky vs unlucky love story... Not so much. The first paragraph of the synopsis gives us a little bit more of a clue: "Imagine that your destiny and ability to succeed in life is actually determined by a certain personal frequency that can never be changed. Imagine also that there was a definite way of determining that frequency at a very young age, thus sealing your fate forever as either a success or a failure." Frequency? What is frequency, as applied to the idea of the human body? Well, lets first look at what frequency is when we think of the millions upon millions o...

What, No more Coffee?? What do you mean? More studies are finding causal links between pesticides and the decline in honeybees and other pollinators. What's the big deal? It just means we won't get stung by the pesky buggers, right? Wrong. Recently, University Heights Whole Foods Market store removed all produce that comes from plants dependent on pollinators in order to raise awareness of just how important these are to our dietary and nutritional needs. They pulled from shelves 237 of 453 products – 52 percent of the department's normally stocked products. Over 40% of the bee colonies in the US have suffered what's known as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) wherein bees either become disoriented--can’t find their way back to their hives and die away from home, or fly back poison-drunk and die at the foot of their queen. Many will argue about the cause of CCD, but--with the most logical and likely arguments point toward the increased usage of pesticides by Monsanto a...

Schematic available from Digitaltrends.com  "Boeing has recently been awarded a patent for a super-efficient laser-powered nuclear fusion engine — and while it might sound like they ripped it straight from the pages of a sci-fi novel, it’s actually not that far-fetched." via Digitaltrends.com This is the fusion engine that is used within the hard sci-fi short stories I've been working on, including "Welcome to the Brethren ." This patented design is a fusion engine that uses the heat produced by the reaction to power the lasers used to produce the fusion reaction, theoretically creating a self-sustaining engine.  This engine, or one like it, might one day power and provide thrust for the ships we are imagining in our writings.  Keep on writing! Keep imagining! Keep dreaming!  Royce.   

     I just got home two days ago from an amazing week away from the mundane world. It was a week spent in the woods, away from technology, from computers and smartphones, from "normal" people, and the average goings on of everyday life. It was a week spent with beautiful, loving people who somehow exist beyond the spectrum of everyday life. Yes, each and every one of us who were there must function within the world around us, but we all live for those moments away from the harsh, cruel world that we find ourselves returning to after immersing ourselves in the glorious presence of other like-minded folks who see the Earth as a magical place.      In the safe space we have created, a realm of our own within the larger world around us, we laugh, we love, and we exist in a blissful state of peace that we wish would extend beyond the borders of our own small realm. We attempt to manifest and extend that peace beyond those borders as we work to help o...

NY Daily News: Dystopian fiction, and its appeal: Why do apocalyptic portrayals of existence dominate teen shelves? This article caught my attention. "What’s behind the surge of dystopian novels in the Young Adult department? In other words, why are nightmarish, futuristic alternate-realities suddenly sexy?" Lauren Sarner asks in her 2013 article linked above. In my opinion, the surge and popularity of dystopian fiction is closely related to the sense of powerlessness many younger folks have as they watch their elders make decisions that will affect their daily lives for many years to come with little to no regard for their, or anyone else's future. We have become a society intent on making the most profit--capitalizing on any given situation for the immediate gain-- with no regard to how our decisions may cause those "butterfly-effect changes" further down the road. I believe our young people see this trend as evidence of our self-destructive behavior a...