The Long Watch

In my family, the legacy of service in arms stretches back through the ages. There is not a single generation that has not produced a veteran.  In my family, every day is Veteran's Day. For, every day we give thanks for those returned to us and remember those left upon a bloody field.

To the Veteran:

Where-ever you may be this night, look up to the stars and know that every foot-soldier, longbowman, cavalry scout, sailor, gunner, doughboy, airmen, WAC volunteer, and minuteman stands with you.  Shoulder to shoulder across the heavens, they guard against the eternal dark.

When your watch is done, they will welcome you to the Halls of Valhalla to take your place among the honored.

When your brave deeds and constant service are nothing but legends upon the Earth, the light of a million heavenly bivouac fires shall be your immortal remembrance.

Short: "Flu-like illness"

When an old high-school friend mentioned, on Facebook, that he and his wife were stuck in Emergency Room limbo, I offered to write a short story to distract them. No one can sleep in ER's, as I well know, and, despite having already been there for 6 hours, there was no end in sight to their stay. This short story, more of a snippet really, popped into my head and demanded to be told.

Readers of "Dremiks" will recognize Doctors Fortunas and Ruger.  The child mentioned here is their adopted daughter: Virginia Dare Hill.

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"Flu-like Illness"

“It is biologically impossible for you to have influenza.”

Dr. Ben Fortunas, stretched out prone on the metal examining table, rolled his head to the side. “I said influenza-like.”

“Far be it for me to criticize the all-knowing biologist, but even an “influenza-like” infection is biologically unlikely.” Dr. Ruger pulled on a pair of examination gloves before approaching her patient.

“But not impossible.”  He sniffed.  “Irritants to the mucosae abound on this infernal planet, so I can readily dismiss the proverbial runny nose. You will note, however, that my core temperature has risen several degrees in the past twenty four hours. Rheumatoid swelling would account for my aching joints and eye-strain induced headache.”

“Yes, but so would advancing age.”  The petite female doctor laughed as the old man on her table glared in outrage.  “Be still.  Let’s check your vitals.”  She made small sounds of assent as the readouts from Fortunas’s bio-chip scrolled on her tablet.  After reviewing the data, she began her physical examination.  She moved his knees and elbows, checked his reflexes, and examined his eyes.  By the time she inserted a swab a considerable distance up the senior science officer’s nose, he’d exhausted his patience.

“Damn it woman, there are less invasive ways of taking a sample!”

“Stop being such a baby.”  She dropped the swab into the processor.  Her tiny foot tapped a steady beat as she waited for the results.  “Don’t forget to bring home the apples for dinner,” she commented in a distracted tone of voice.

“I’m putting you and that pernicious parasite on a reduced apple regimen.  You’ll exhaust my stores, again.”

“That’s no way to refer to our daughter.”

“Which nomenclature do you dispute, her parasitic status or the increasingly pernicious aspect of said parasitism?”

“Both.”

“Medical doctors,” he snorted.  “So blithely imprecise.”

“Ha!”

“Eh?”

“You do not have a flu-like viral infection.”

“Obviously, since my body has been inoculated to prevent viral receptivity. Wait,” his bushy white eyebrows inched towards his even bushier hairline.  “Why do you sound so giddy?  What do I have?”

“A parasitic infection of uniquely Dremikian origin.  It appears to be a type of dust mite.”  She jabbed an auto-syringe at his arm, not gently.  “The infection should be resolved in twenty four hours.”

He pulled himself upright with a groan.  “Thank you, I think.”

“You’re welcome.  I’ll see you at home.”

He leaned over to kiss her on his way out the door of the medical hut, but she shied away.

“Eww, get away.” She shooed him with her hands. “I don’t want your flu!”

Review: "Hero's End" by JC Cassels

"Hero's End" is the second book in JC Cassels' "Blackwing Chronicles."  For my review of the first book, "Sovran's Pawn", please go here. Cassels can be followed on Facebook and Twitter.

Over-all rating: 4 stars

"Hero's End" is a better book, both stylistically and story-wise, than "Sovran's Pawn".  The characters are alive with rich background details. Scenery is described in dramatic fashion but not to the point that a reader becomes bored with every descriptive nuance.  The story is well paced with a good blend of action and exposition. If you love the lush settings, blood-curdling action, and cliffhangers of George RR Martin's "Game of Thrones" series, you will like this book.

Plot (no spoilers): 4stars

Blade Devon and Bo Barron are back to save the galaxy each other.  While there are certainly over-arcing political plotlines within "Hero's End", this is the story of Blade and Bo.  As the second in a series, the book does a good job of treading the fine line between re-telling the first book and plunging the reader into the action with no point of reference.  The first three chapters are a bit slower paced than the rest of the book, but still manage to draw you in.

This series of books is good, classic, space opera.  The plot is character driven and centered around the romance of the two protagonists. Don't be misled, though.  This is not a sappy romance novel set in space. Cassels has created an entire galaxy full of competing star systems, power-plays, holo-feature starlets, and mystical wisemen.

There's more mysticism in this story than in the prior book.  I always have to give myself a good mental shake when there's talk of telepathy.  Yes mind reading is all very sci-fi, but the book does take place on spaceships and alien planets.

Formatting: 3 stars

I'm still an ebook snob, so I'm not going to over-look the lack of a working Table of Contents or chapter hyperlinks.

Final thoughts:

I stayed up until 4am to finish "Hero's End". Be warned, it ends in a cliffhanger that is so wrenching as to make me curse aloud.  Fans of space opera will not want to miss this book.

Space Station Grub

I thought it was about time y'all got to read what I've been working on.  Here's a snippet of the up-coming sequel to Dremiks.  Hope you enjoy; feedback is appreciated.

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“This is the canteen.”  John opened a very human looking door and stepped over the slight rise of the frame.

Lilly took in the dark paneled walls, the dim lighting, close packed chairs, and general cozy feel of the place.  “Looks more like a pub to me.”

He seemed to consider this while leading her to the bar.  “I suppose that’s a better definition. I’m still getting used to eating in a room not called a “mess”, though.” He nodded to the attractive human woman behind the bar. “Evenin’ Callie.  Bowl of Texas Red and a stout, please.  Oh, and, whatever Agent Diaz here wants.  Throw it all on my tab until we get her a line of credit, k?”

Callie had dark auburn hair pulled back in a ponytail, without bangs.  Her hazel eyes were framed with crow’s feet to match the laugh lines around her full lips.  She flicked a glance over Lilly while she filled John’s beer from the tap. In a voice hinting of Eastern European roots, she said, “What’ll it be?  I’ve got a bit of that pumpkin bisque left, some fried chicken, borscht, and chili.  Hold one.”  She turned her head and yelled, at an impressive volume, “Georg!  That bread out yet?”

If Georg answered, Lilly couldn’t hear him.  Callie ladled chili into a bowl and pushed it toward John.  “So, no bread yet.  About anything you want for drink, 'cept I’m critically low on bourbon.”  This seemed to be a point of contention between her and John, since she shot him a nasty look.  He shrugged while juggling his beer and bowl. 

“I’ll be over there when you’ve got your grub.”  He jerked his head in the direction of a back corner.

Lilly wanted to ask how a pub on a space station—an alien space station—could make pumpkin bisque and fresh bread, but Callie appeared to be short on patience.  “Uh, the bisque and a coffee please.”

Kindle MatchBook

I received, this morning, an email from Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing team. It read:

Hello,

We are excited to introduce Kindle MatchBook, an innovative new program which enables you to offer your Kindle book at a discount when readers purchase your print book, so you can sell more books. It's easy to enroll.

Here's how it works:

1. Select your Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) title on your KDP Bookshelf and check the Enroll box for Kindle MatchBook on the "Rights & Pricing" page.
2. Set the discount for your book by choosing a promotional list price of $2.99 or less.
3. Save your Kindle MatchBook preferences.

By enrolling your book, you will be among the first to be able to take advantage of this new program. The Kindle MatchBook discount you select will not appear on Amazon.com until the program is fully launched in the coming weeks. We will notify you by e-mail as soon as your Kindle MatchBook discount is live. Your readers will soon have an easy and affordable way to read your book in both print and digital formats.

Visit your KDP Bookshelf today to enroll your books in Kindle MatchBook.

Best regards,
The Kindle Direct Publishing Team

My first impression is that this program is very similar to Amazon's AutoRip service.  When purchasing certain "hard copy" (CDs mostly but there are a few vinyl options) albums,a consumer can automatically download MP3 versions of the music for free.

I find this approach works better with music than with books.  I like having a CD for my car and MP3 for my computer or MP3player.  The only time I've purchased a digital copy of a book after having already bought a hard-copy was when I had a book sustain water damage during a move. Furthermore, the majority of my paperback sales have not been via Amazon, so my paperback customers would not be able to take advantage of this program.

However, I am the queen of "early adopters"; so, I have enrolled Dremiks in the program.  I'll keep you updated on the status of sales and the efficacy of this new program.

Beverage of Choice in 5 Star Systems

This sums up so many of my plotlines:

For the record: Lance and Lilly prefer "Four Roses", while Captain Brett Hill drinks ( and occasionally shares with Maggie and Swede) "Woodford Reserve".

Oh the Excuses You'll Contrive

Just slightly over a year ago I wrote a post that said: "I very much want to finish the first draft of Lilly's story before the end of August.  My kids go back to school on the 22nd and Guild Wars 2 starts on the 25th, so I'll be super busy and distracted after that day. "

Excuse me while I double over from wry laughter.

Oh, if only the start of the school year and a game launch had been my only distractions in the past year...

One day after writing that post, my husband broke his leg in three places.  He required a 4 day hospital stay and major surgery.  He couldn't place any weight on his leg for nearly six weeks and was on crutches for some time after that.  I had to play the role of home-nurse as well as wife and mother.

Two weeks after writing that post, my broken-legged husband was laid off from his job. We were faced with finding a new job for him while he couldn't walk or drive. He did, thankfully find a great company to join...in Seattle.

Three months after writing that post, we were unpacking after our THIRD 900+ mile relocation in the space of THREE years.  I spent my days trying to shepherd my two learning-disabled boys through the processes of new schools, new friends, and new routines while my nights were spent unpacking.

Also, in the past year, I've had to fly across country for a wedding, had major abdominal surgery, and managed to (barely) hold onto my sanity.

What's the point?  I've come to the realization that life is never going to be any easier or less stressful.  I will never have fewer demands on my time or a magical cave to which I can escape and spend my hours leisurely typing out fantasies.

I'm going to have to write as I always have: hurried snippets scribbled in margins of school notebooks, grocery lists, and Little League scorecards. I'm going to have to  struggle for every second it takes to get Lilly, John, Lance, Ailee, the Roman, Teriwyn kho'Khanna, and the rest of my characters onto paper.

If these imaginary friends of mine want to survive, they're going to have to fight for it.  Buckle up, it's going to be an interesting (Wash definition of interesting) ride.

Entry 11

Click on the picture link to read more wonderful snippets of fantasy and science-fiction! 

(Oh, and if you think it's frustrating reading bits of a story in 10 sentence increments, try WRITING the story that way.)

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Entry 11

I write this from memory as I was, obviously, unable to type out an entry as events were occurring.  At some point after my last writing, I fell unconscious.   I remember the over-head lights hurting my eyes but being unable to adjust them.  I remember racking coughs and sweat-soaked sheets.

I remember her.

I thought she was an illusion, a conjuring of my dying brain. Fevers, as I well know, induce swelling of cerebral tissues and make synapses fire irregularly, causing hallucinations.  These typically precede death by the space of a few hours.

But I didn't die, and she wasn't a fever dream.

I am prisoner 1138 but my name is Abraham bin Navi

Fame

The past few years have seen an explosion in discussions about the role of gender in the nerd & geek communities. In case you've been stranded on an island with Oliver Queen, a hashtag search for #GeekGirls should give you plenty of reading material.  I've contributed to these discussions myself, notably with this post: Hear it for the Heroines.  A video posted recently, and a post by friend and fellow author JC Cassels, prompted the following entry.

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I am a geek. I am a nerd. I am a female.

I am memorable.

I have always been these things.  I watched GI Joe and He-Man cartoons, purloined my brother's comic books and begged to play D&D with him.  I spent as many hours with the Atari Basic programming cassette as I spent with "Missile Command" and "Pac-Man".  I adored "Turtle Tracks".  I kicked my brother's whining ass, beating Castle Wolfenstein and DOOM long before he did.  The very first story I ever wrote was science fiction.

You'll remember me.


Yes, this made adolescence rather painful.  I doubt, however, that it was more or less painful for a nerd/geek boy. I'd be lying if I said I didn't care what other people thought or said about me. Those snide comments and date-less nights, though, made me who I am.


Don't you know who I am?

I don't take the easy road.  Anything worth doing is hard.  You want me to do something?  Tell me I can't.  I knew that using Cassandra Davis as a pen name would hurt sales.  I decided I didn't care.  If someone is so ignorant as to live in this century and still believe that the quality of storytelling is dependent on the gender of the storyteller, then I don't want that idiot reading my books. I'll sell fewer books, but as long as that is a reflection on the idiocy of a few and not on the quality of my writing, I am unconcerned.

Remember.


When you grow up marginalized, when you grow up "different", you become a grown up who dares.  You dare to believe. You dare to fight for what you want.  You dare anyone to stand in your way. You set the sky on fire.

I am unafraid, unapologetic, unswayed.

They'll remember.

If I'm doing my best, it won't matter what name I use.  I will live forever because my story will learn to fly. Every boy or girl, woman or man, who reads my books, will take a part of it with them.  The story will become a part of their lives.

Fame, and a name, are what you make of them.

Space is Cold

Space is cold.

It’s a fact drilled into little heads during those first colorful lessons about the solar system.  Those lessons with the spinning planets and the bright orange Sun are meant to stick with a child long into adulthood.  Space is cold, the teacher always says.

Except when it isn't.  "The Universe is filled with exceptions to known constants”, a different teacher says, many years later. Space is cold unless you are being cooked in the radiation from a star. Then space is not cold, it is burning you from the inside out.

Space, Maggie thinks, is a lot like love.

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Just a few thoughts from the head of Maggie O'Connell.  She's out there, right now, exploring the universe, making new friends and hunting old enemies.  You'll see her in the next book, I promise! (If you haven't read about Maggie's first (published) adventure, go check-out Dremiks )

SFF Saturday 5-25-2013

Click on the picture link to read more wonderful snippets of fantasy and science-fiction!

When last we saw Prisoner 1138, he was convinced the life support systems in his cell were malfunctioning.  This is one scientist who forgot his clinical training...

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Entry 10

This is more effective than any experiment I could have devised.  If I am truly being watched, then surely my captors would have intervened by now.  Uneaten food lies  piled beneath the food dispensing slot. The air reeks of sweat and that particular "sick-room" smell that can never quite be eliminated by aerosolized disinfectant.

At this point I must assume that my med-chip data is not being monitored either, or it is and they are collating data points on my symptom progression. I have not risen from my bed in over a day.  The linens around me are smeared with mucous, some of it, to my horror, now containing blood.  Is this their plan?  A final cruel irony--that I face the misery I inflicted, and will inflict, on so many others?

I am Prisoner 1138.  I am Dr. bin Navi.  I am dying.

SFF Saturday April 13, 2013

Click on the picture link to read more wonderful snippets of fantasy and science-fiction!

Prisoner 1138 isn't feeling so well.....
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Entry 9

The ridiculous excuses for food taste worse than ever.  I don't know how that's possible, but I'm even less inclined to eat.

The atmospheric filters appear to be malfunctioning as well. Mild irritants have caused my mucus membranes to swell and start leaking. This might be a result of the damaged pressure valve in my cell, though, because my ears and sinuses feel clogged.

I have no energy for experiments.  I cannot focus on the texts regarding extending kinetic battery life.

The temperature controls are fluctuating wildly.  I have been both over-heated and shivering with cold in the span of four hours.

I am prisoner 1138, but my name is..... Abraham...bin Navi

SFF Saturday April 6 2013

See the pretty picture?  Click on it, go read some great new fiction.

Prisoner 1138 continues his journal entries.  When last we heard from him, he was devising experiments to see if he was being watched.

 

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Entry 8

 

My experiments to determine whether or not my captors are using video surveillance have so far proven inconclusive.  I tried the dramatic first: sharpening a pilfered eating utensil and threatening--on multiple occasions-- my veins with said instrument.  No concerned orderlies broke into my room to prevent my threatened suicide.  One might point out that the incredibly easy task of retaining my, metal, breakfast spoon was itself a test of the level of surveillance.  But, perhaps I just have lazy monitors who missed my amateur piracy. In the same vein (heh), it is possible the assumed watchers just do not care if I end my life prematurely, and therefore were content to sit back and watch as I did so.

My next attempt involved taking apart my tablet and trying, very visibly, to connect with those back on Earth. I thought this would've prompted intervention; but, as my rudimentary engineering work failed to produce either more battery power or outside contact, it is conceivable that my jailors are merely snickering at my ineptitude and see no reason to intervene. Incidentally, the delay in writing these entries is a direct effect of my tablet experiment.

I am prisoner 1138, but my name is Abraham bin Navi.

Kindle Fire Give-away

Courtesy of the fine folks at The New Kindle Book Review and Digital Book today:

Mailing List

Please forgive this break from deep-space sarcasm, but I need reliable ways to contact my fans and followers with information regarding upcoming book promotions and releases. (Yes, releases... I am actually writing that sequel.  Slowly.)

So, please take a moment to join my mailing list.  Click here, fill out the simple little form, and you're done.  If you tell your friends and the folks at your local book clubs, that would be very nice.

And now I return you to my regularly scheduled destruction of Universal civilizations...

I dinna think tha' means wha' ye think it means...

Word-nerd humor for anyone who knows a redhead:

ginger -n: (informal) a person with reddish hair
gingerly - adv: with great care or caution, warily

Congratulations to "Brave" for their Oscar win.

FREE Weekend & SFF Saturday 2/23/13

I'm back!  I won't bore you with the varied (and disturbing) reasons why I haven't been posting for Science Fiction & Fantasy Saturdays.  Just know that I haven't abandoned the story of Prisoner 1138 and I hope to share more of his journal with you in the coming weeks.  This week, however, I'm killing two planets with one asteroid: posting a snippet of DREMIKS which is FREE on Amazon for the weekend of February 23rd and 24th.

Amazon US link here
Page with links for other countries here.

If you've already read DREMIKS and are looking for other scifi and fantasy books, please check out the links at the SFF Saturday site.

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(This is a brief, 10 sentence, description of Dwax, the Dremikian alien aboard the spaceship Hudson.)




Dwax floated to the medical bay. He preferred humans to use the term “float” instead of the repulsive “slither” that some found so applicable. He wished he could understand the human psyche’s need to associate anything that had tentacles with slimy, slithering, creatures of the muck and wet. Dwax had never once slithered and he hated being dirty. In one of his arm tentacles, he carried a stack of disks for Dr. Ruger.

Trained to follow in his father’s diplomatic footsteps, according to the rigid caste system of his home-world, Dwax had no useful medical knowledge. His father had, however, considered it a diplomat’s duty to supply Dr. Ruger with several weighty tomes on the subject. Much as he was bored by all things medicinal, Dwax was fascinated by the coffee-skinned doctor and her soft voice. Happily freed from a meeting with Chancellor Trell, Dwax looked forward to an afternoon in the doctor’s company.

Review: "Bypass Gemini"

If you follow my reviews here, or on Goodreads, you'll know that I rarely give a book 5 stars.  Maybe I'm overly critical, maybe I'm just too damn picky, but few books--in my opinion--deserve top marks.

Joseph Lallo's "Bypass Gemini" deserves 5 stars.

Mr. Lallo was a fellow finalist in the "Kindle Book Review's Top Indie Books of 2012".  We exchanged books as a professional courtesy.  I am now convinced I got the better end of that exchange. This book was well written, had excellent pacing, and possessed enough dry wit and bad puns to have me laughing well past my bedtime.

The title character is a good boy who made bad choices and is now struggling though adulthood paying for those choices.  He works multiple jobs to make ends meet--or not meet, as the case may be.  Hair-raising chases, impressive flight maneuvers, and a whopping portion of pure dumb luck keep the hero, and the reader, hopping from one planet to the next.

There's plenty in this book that could have turned out cliched and cloying, but Lallo's style leaves it feeling fresh and innovative.  There's the ex who's not quite over the hero ( and he's not anywhere near over her), evil corporate overlords, baffling arrays of technological advances, a smartass computer, and even a certifiably (with a certificate to prove it!) mad scientist.  Oh--and there's the Funk.  I won't spoil that bit, because it is a hidden gem in this book that deserves a proper reveal.

Make no mistake, this is true science fiction, not just a space-based action novel.  The genius in "Bypass Gemini", though, is that the science is coupled with dissembling sarcasm that puts the lay-reader at ease.  There's plenty of "nerd porn" for hard science fans, but it is not provided in a droning litany destined to bore senseless the average reader.  Here's a perfect example:

"Bigger, beefier versions of the same things that made his delivery bike work, the repulsors used the interplay between two tangible energy fields to create a synchronized wave pattern capable of instituting temporary charge differences between the vehicle and road surface for the purposes of facilitating the attraction and repulsion necessary to maintain an approximately constant distance.

In other words, he had traction now."

There are a few editing flaws in the book ( two weirdly truncated sentences that may very well be blamed on html formatting errors) but they give this work a level of authenticity instead of distracting the reader.  My Kindle version was well formatted with proper chapter links and design.  This is the type of self published work that lends credibility to the genre.

If you love science fiction, action, adventures, technology, or just a good chase scene, you cannot afford to miss this story.  "Bypass Gemini" is easily the best science fiction book I've read in the past year.

Civ V: Gods and Kings Review

I'm putting on my Gamer Girl hat for the day and giving you my thoughts on Civilization V: Gods and Kings.  This expansion came out several months ago, but I was too busy to try it out (see: moving family 800+ miles to a new city, husband with a broken leg, book deadlines, etc).  My darling children gave me the expansion as Steam gift and I've been playing since Christmas Day.

Civ: V was already a great game, especially on a new, top-of-the-line, gaming system.  But, like all games and all RTS games in particular, there were annoying AI glitches and bugs.  The Gods & Kings expansion has gone a long way toward fixing these issues. Enemy civilizations will no longer ask for a declaration of friendship in one turn and denounce you the next turn. There are fewer "pointless upgrades" in both technology and city expansion.  There are more paths to victory.

The biggest improvement with this expansion, in my opinion, is the increased usefulness and variety of city states.  Prior to the Gods & Kings expansion, I would ignore cultural city states unless I was trying to a specific cultural victory achievement.  Maritime city states were merely prime targets for invasion as soon as possible.  After the expansion and the addition of mercantile and religious city state types, I've found myself actively engaged in winning over these "other" players.  City state missions have also become more worthwhile and varied, allowing players seeking scientific, cultural or diplomatic victories more routes to success.

The addition of religions and spies to the game has increased the complexity of the game, but not in such a way as to impede play.  I enjoyed trying to mold my state-sponsored religion to fit my civilizations goals. The faith based cultural benefits were useful and fun to tinker with. I absolutely adore using spies to fix elections in city states, steal technology, and capture other spies. If I could actually sabotage wonder construction or technology advancement, I'd think I'd be in RTS gamer heaven.

This is a true expansion, not downloadable fluff content.  The game has been changed in fundamental ways that invite a player to go back and play a previous civilization or map.  There are plenty of new civilizations to play, new wonders to build, and the technology tracks have been overhauled to be more comprehensive and fitting to their respective eras.

Civilization V: Gods & Kings is a comprehensive, well designed expansion to a masterpiece strategy game.  I highly recommend visiting the Steam store and downloading your copy.

SFF Saturday 1-12-2013

See the pretty picture?  Click on it, go read some great new fiction.

Prisoner 1138's journal continues....

 

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Entry 7

I often wonder if they are watching me.  I know this insidious little device in my wrist monitors my heart rate and oxygen level, as well as providing a rudimentary tracking device,--so do my jailers need remote cameras to track my every movement?  My cell was originally a small break room for Lunar Colony miners; therefore, I assume they didn't go through the expense of wiring cameras and motion detectors before locking me in here.  As their continuing policy seems to be "throw him in a hole and hope the world forgets he's there (and what he's done in our name)", I am  more and more convinced that there is no note-taking watcher on the other side of these reinforced walls.

I'm bored, though, and have devised a series of experiments to test my hypothesis.  I shall provide an update on these tests in my next entry.

 

My designation is Prisoner 1138, but my name is Abraham bin Navi

SFF Saturday 1-4-13

See the pretty picture?  Click on it, go read some great new fiction.

Prisoner 1138 continues his journal entries....

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Entry 6

The depression continues, kept at bay with sheer stubbornness and my daily exercise routine. The boredom is more insidious. Yes, my jailers gave me a tablet loaded with the entire contents of the Library of Congress--but they studiously censored anything pertaining to my previous fields of interest. (Not that it would matter, I either have read or wrote all of the major scholarly works on viral genetic manipulation.) No, the problem continues to be the exasperatingly short battery life of the tablet. Reading 15 minute's worth of Candide is enough to drive me insane under the best of circumstances.  I need to find some serialized fiction, something meant to be consumed in small doses. Alternately, I need to read more about modern kinetic battery design.

I am prisoner 1138, but my name is Abraham bin Navi.