We should be packing for Gen Con, but... DUCK TALES!

August 14, 2017 by Anton Strout

We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming to bring you the first awesome episode of Disney XD's Duck Tales (ooh OOH ooh!).

Artist's impression of stars orbiting central black hole in the Milky Way

BREAKING SCIENCE: First Evidence of Relativity Effects on Stars Orbiting Central Milky Way Black Hole!

August 09, 2017 by Anton Strout in For Science!

So much of modern physics relies on indirect observations and theorization. We can't SEE things that happen on a super small or super large scale. Mathematically, we can figure out how things SHOULD happen. But right now, humans just aren't at a point where we have the technology or know-how to "see" far beyond our own solar system, or smaller than the atoms that make us up. Every now and then, though, we have a breakthrough that lets us see that "Yes! Our math has been correct!" Or, "Oops, that didn't quite go according to our predictions..."

When Einstein came out with his Theory of General Relativity, it was based very much on math, theory, and a model of how he thought the universe should work. It's not a law yet--it hasn't been proven beyond a doubt--and there have been some strong arguments against it. But recently, there have been some observations of things in the universe that support his theory, and recently, scientists have found another bit of evidence pointing to the existence of general relativity!

For the first time, scientists have seen, via data from European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope and other telescopes, that the orbits of stars around the supermassive black hole in the center of our galaxy show effects predicted by the theory of general relativity, albeit subtly.

Classical physics, the theories put forth by people like Isaac Newton, predict that bodies behave in a certain way. And for the most part, for our intents and purposes as humans on Earth, they DO behave that way. We can calculate the trajectory of a missile launched at a certain speed in a certain direction. We know how hard something is going to hit the ground when it's dropped from a certain height. If I leave station A at one time at a certain speed, and my friend leaves station B at one time at a certain speed, we can figure out where we'd meet. For hundreds of years, we thought that these laws not only governed how things worked on Earth, but how they behaved throughout the whole universe. However, once we started to understand how light travels, and how things behave on a huge scale, beyond what we can directly observe, and started dealing with things that had very large masses, we started to have questions about how things actually behaved versus how they SHOULD behave according to Newton's laws. That's what prompted Einstein's studies. If we account for curved space-time of general relativity, physics behaves differently than in a "planar" system. We can see these effects in our own solar system, as well as in larger systems.

One of the stars orbiting the central black hole in the Milky Way, S2, exhibited a tiny change in motion in its orbit, a change that is consistent with how Einstein predicted general relativity would affect a body in orbit around a supermassive object. This is the first time scientists have observed this effect, and it's pretty exciting to see decades of laboratory and simulation work exhibited by actual objects in the galaxy.

Until now, scientists haven't been able to make these observations. They lacked the equipment necessary to make the ultra-accurate measurements in star positions necessary to make any judgments. But now, thanks to the Very Large Telescope's near-infrared adaptive optics instruments, scientists could measure S2's position both in its orbit close to the black hole, and when it was further away.

"During the course of our analysis, we realized that to determine relativistic effects for S2, one definitely needs to know the full orbit to very high precision," team leader Andreas Eckart at the University of Cologne said. Analysis of the data from the VLT has given scientists this more precise information, as well as more information about the black hole itself.

"It is very reassuring that S2 shows relativistic effects as expected on the basis of its proximity to the extreme mass concentration at the center of the Milky Way. This opens up an avenue for more theory and experiments in this sector of science," says Vladimir Karas from the Academy of Sciences in Prague, the Czech Republic.

This observation is just the beginning! In 2018, the star S2 will be making a very close approach to the supermassive black hole in the center of the Milky Way, and scientists plan on using the new GRAVITY instrument installed on the Very Large Telescope to help measure the orbit much more precisely than is now possible. This will not only help scientists make more accurate readings, but could help them see deviations from general relativity that could help us understand even MORE physics!

Melanie R. Meadors is an author of fantasy where heroes don't always carry swords and knights in shining armor often lose to nerds who study their weaknesses. She has edited two upcoming genre anthologies, MECH: Age of Steel and HATH NO FURY, and is the science and pop culture blogger at The Once and Future Podcast. You can find her at her website, melaniermeadors.com, on Facebook, and Twitter, @melaniermeadors.

Solar Eclipse: BUYER BEWARE! Eclipse Glasses Fraud Is Rampant

August 08, 2017 by Anton Strout in News

If you are a friend or fan of mine, you know I'm a pretty smart person. I went to school for astrophysics. My husband has his degree in mechanical engineering, and has worked at optical companies. We aren't strangers to the world of optics and lenses and what we should be looking for when we buy things like solar eclipse viewing glasses.

Yet, we were still duped.

Nerds and laypeople alike are pretty stoked--as they should be!--about the upcoming solar eclipse on Monday, August 21. As most school kids know, though, in order to see the eclipse, you need some special equipment. Looking at a solar eclipse with your naked eye, through sunglasses, even through things like welders' glass and things like that, will lead to permanent eye damage. Your retinas don't have pain receptors. You can't tell that they are being damaged. But the light from a solar eclipse is so focused and bright that it will sear your retinas and can cause blindness, and at the very least, irreversible damage. People have used things like pinhole cameras and other indirect methods of viewing eclipses for years now. But more recently, people started using solar eclipse glasses, the cheapest of which look like paper 3-D glasses, but that have lenses that look completely black.

Legit solar eclipse viewing glasses should be so dark you can't see ANYTHING through them, not even the lights in your house, nothing. And the lenses should meet the transmission requirements of ISO 12312-2. But here's the thing...in the days where everyone owns a printer, where anything can be mass produced, etc, there is a HUGE influx of fake glasses out there, that are CLAIMING to be ISO certified, that have the logo on them, etc, but aren't.

When we were buying our family's glasses, we did what we thought was due diligence, and to be honest, eclipse glasses fraud wasn't high on our concern list. Who the heck would do that, putting people's eyes at risk?

Well, it turns out, quite a few people and companies.

We bought our glasses from Amazon. We have Prime, and it was convenient. We got a 10 pack of the paper framed kind, and they looked like the ones Bill Nye advertised via the Planetary Society. When they arrived, I put them aside, to wait for the big day.

Then a friend sent me a link to a news article warning people about the fake glasses.

My eyeballs are important to me, and I had misgivings about using the glasses in the first place. But this prompted me to inspect my glasses closely.

Mind you, the American Astronomical society has a list of their approved vendors and manufacturers of eclipse viewers, and top of the list is American Paper Optics. The picture below is an image of the glasses I bought. Look at the manufacturer:

These are the glasses I received, Soluna.

OK, so far so good, right? But wait. Look at the second word on the verbiage there. "Conforms TWO?" That's a doozy of a typo.

I went to the website listed, and I went to American Paper Optics's website separately. They aren't the same, but the contact on each is the same and the phone numbers match, the addresses match...That's because they are both the same company, the legitimate American Paper Optics company. All the info on these glasses is CORRECT.

BUT WAIT.

Because American Paper Optics knows about the fraud company, they kindly provided a picture of what the inside of their glasses SHOULD look like. Here it is:

What the REAL American Paper Optics glasses should look like.

Notice two things: There is no typo on these, AND there is a barcode. There is no barcode on the glasses we bought that claim to be from American Paper Optics. But, you know, maybe that barcode is only on particular models....

The other thing that tipped me off was that the name of the glasses we bought, Soluna, is nowhere on American Paper Optics's page. There are pictures of several other glasses with different printing, all legitimately made by American Paper Optics, but Soluna is nowhere to be seen. Upon further inspection of the glasses, I noticed that the lenses were squarish. Like this:

My fake/fraudulent glasses.

Now look at the picture of the real glasses, above. See how the sides of the lenses are curved? ALL American Paper Optics glasses have CURVED sides to the lenses. And indeed, inspection of their website shows this:

Comparison of certified glasses versus fraudulent ones.

I don't know about you, but I was pretty pissed when I saw this. So, back to Amazon I went, to report the company we bought these glasses from. Only....there was a problem.

The company was gone.

Of course they were gone. They probably put the glasses up for a couple days, then disappeared, then popped up under a new name, disappeared again. Selling these fraudulent glasses claiming to be from a company they are not IS in fact a felony, and having the certification info on there when they were never checked is against international law.

But most important of all, there is absolutely NO way of knowing if these glasses will keep your eyes safe, because they aren't tested and the info on them is fake.

Please, PLEASE, PLEASE only get your glasses from places that the American Astronomical Society, NASA, and the Planetary Society have deemed safe. Do NOT buy them from Amazon.

Here is a list of places deemed safe and legitimate. If you Google the names, you will find the correct sites for them, but I've provided a link for the first:

American Paper Optics (Eclipser) / EclipseGlasses.com

APM Telescopes (Sunfilter Glasses)

Baader Planetarium (AstroSolar Silver/Gold Film)

Celestron (EclipSmart Glasses & Viewers)

DayStar (Solar Glasses)

Explore Scientific (Solar Eclipse Sun Catcher Glasses)

Lunt Solar Systems (SUNsafe SUNglasses)

Meade Instruments (EclipseView Glasses & Viewers)

Rainbow Symphony (Eclipse Shades)

Seymour Solar (Helios Glasses)

Thousand Oaks Optical (Silver-Black Polymer & SolarLite)

TSE 17 (Solar Filter Foil)

Sadly, the world seems to have become about the quickest way to make a buck. Yes, the glasses on Amazon are cheaper, but it is NOT worth the risk to your eyes. The damage to your eyes from looking at an eclipse is not repairable and is permanent. Pay a bit more and get the actual certified glasses. Make sure you can't see ANYTHING through them. Not a thing. Not the lights around the house, nothing. If you can see anything, throw them out. Or do what I'm doing and return them, reporting the company to Amazon and whatever authorities I can find.

If this has you paranoid--and I know I kind of feel that way--you can see the eclipse other ways as well. Here is a link to NASA's page on how to make your own pinhole camera to view the eclipse. It's a fun and simple project you can do with your family!

And please PLEASE protect your eyes properly. You only get one set!

For more information, see the American Astronomical Society's page here.

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An Interview With Theodora Goss, Author of 'The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter'

July 27, 2017 by Anton Strout in Books

Theodora Goss is perhaps best known for her award winning short fiction and poetry. She has a lovely social media presence, as well, where she posts pictures of her travels, flowers, and other things that I personally have found refreshing.

Theodora's series on "The Fairytale Heroine's Journey" is also quite popular. It started, I believe as a series of blog posts, became an article in Faerie Magazine, and she also wrote a more academic paper on it as well, exploring Campbell's mythological hero's journey in the context of female fairy tale characters, exploring ways their journeys might differ from Campbell's male counterparts.

I was very excited when I heard that Theodora had a full-length novel coming out. Having read some of her shorter work, I enjoyed her use of language and couldn't wait to see what she did in a longer form.

I was not disappointed.

The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter (Saga Press) is a fantastical mystery of mad science and secret societies. It takes the tale of Doctor Jeckyll and Mister Hyde and turns it on its head, delving deeper into the story and joining it with others. Some familiar faces in this book include Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, and names include Frankenstein, Moreau, and more.

Readers with a more literary bent will appreciate all of the author's nods to the classics, and her mastery of language and prose. Those readers who are in it for fun will enjoy a mysterious adventure that will remind them of everything they loved about Penny Dreadful or League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Theodora Goss has accomplished no easy feat in creating a work that can be enjoyed by a wide range of readers, with a lyrical style that is at the same time unpretentious and a joy to read.

I recently had the opportunity to ask Theodora Goss some questions about this book and her other work. Please welcome Theodora to the Once and Future Podcast blog!

Melanie R. Meadors: Your book The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter came out on June 20th. Can you tell us a bit about it?

Theodora Goss: It's about Mary Jekyll, Diana Hyde, Beatrice Rappaccini, Catherine Moreau, and Justine Frankenstein, who find each other in late nineteenth-century London. It starts when Mary learns that her father's former assistant, the notorious Mr. Hyde, might still be alive. She wants to know if there's still a reward for information leading to his capture, so she visits Sherlock Holmes, who lives across Regents Park from the Jekyll residence. Holmes is trying to solve a series of gruesome murders that have recently taken place in Whitechapel. Mary becomes entangled in his investigation, while her own leads her to Diana (Hyde's daughter), Beatrice, Catherine, and Justine, all the results of shocking experiments by mad scientists. In the course of the book, these five very unusual young women learn about themselves and their origins, which have more to do with those murders than they imagine.

MRM: You draw from several tales in this book—Sherlock Holmes, Frankenstein, Doctor Jeckyll and Mister Hyde. Do you have a favorite story from the Victorian time period, or perhaps a favorite monster?

TG: I love all the monsters! I'm not sure I have a favorite, but I do really love Carmilla, Sheridan Le Fanu's female monster from the novella of the same name. She's a beautiful vampire who lives in Styria, and I love her because she's so complicated. She preys on young women, particularly one named Laura, and at one point she tells Laura that becoming a vampire is like becoming a butterfly. Girls are caterpillars, but some day, she implies, they too can become magnificent. I love the idea of the natural life cycle of a Victorian girl as including a vampire phase! Carmilla is one of my favorite stories, but I also love other fairly obscure ones like The Great God Pan and The Jewel of Seven Stars. I suspect they're mostly read by Victorianists, people who study the period professionally, nowadays.

MRM: What were some special challenges, if any, when you were writing this book?

TG: The biggest challenge was trying to get my characters to move through a late nineteenth-century world in an authentic way. Hopefully I succeeded! I had to think about how money was used, how people traveled around the city of London, where locations were relative to one another. What things might have smelled like . . . I also had to think about these things from the perspective of the characters. For example, we might have found late nineteenth-century London quite smelly, but people living at that time would have been used to it. Another challenge was trying to write from the perspectives of five different female characters. I wanted to make sure that Mary, Diana, Beatrice, Catherine, and Justine were each distinct.

MRM: Something I liked about The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter is the feminine slant to stories I was familiar with. I love monster stories, but so few of the Victorian stories have women or girls in them. I think women have a special perspective in these types of stories, and I enjoyed the different perspective you gave. Could you talk a bit about why you chose to write about female characters in the context of older stories that had all male casts? Was there anything personal about the choice?

TG: Actually, three of my female monsters are from the original texts! Beatrice is the central character in "Rappaccini's Daughter," a short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne. I just gave her more of a voice and a more detailed backstory. Catherine really does appear in The Island of Dr. Moreau, although not under that name: she's the anonymous puma woman created by Moreau who ends up killing him. And Justine is the bride Victor Frankenstein starts creating for his male monster. He never creates her--instead, he disassembles her and throws her body parts into the sea. That scene, more than any other perhaps, inspired me to write this book. I felt that his female monster ought to exist as well. In my version, she's made from the body of the maid Justine Moritz, who is hanged for the murder of Frankenstein's younger brother (a murder really committed by the male monster). Mary and Diana are the only ones I made up, and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde does have a dearth of female characters--but strangely enough, Hyde himself is described several times in feminine terms. I chose to write about female monsters because they never get to say very much--they usually exist to be fought and destroyed. I thought they deserved their own stories.

MRM: You also write a lot of shorter fiction, much of which has appeared on tor.com. Do you have a preferred length in which to write? Do you find that you write different types of stories between your shorter and longer works?

TG: I really don't have a preferred length: I write everything from poetry to novels. But yes, I do write differently at different lengths. In shorter fiction, you can do things that are more experimental. You can be more allusive, more cryptic. You can write without a real plot. Of course you could do that in a novel as well, if you were prepared to have readers get mad at you! But readers (and perhaps editors) seem to tolerate more experimentation in shorter fiction. And poetry I write just because that's the way my mind works. It allows me to really focus on each line, the sound of each word--in a way I can't at novel length.

Matthew Stein Photography

MRM: Something a lot of writers struggle with is voice. You have a very unique writing voice that reminds me of fairy tales and poetry. Do you find this comes naturally, or did you decide that you wanted to write stories like that, and therefore honed your voice in that way?

TG: Thank you! To be honest, I don't really know what my writing voice sounds like. I listened to myself on a podcast recently, to see if I was making sense, and realized that I actually talk the way I write in this book. So I think it may be just me? One thing that may affect my voice is that even though I've been speaking English since I was seven, it was my third language, after Hungarian and French. I learned a lot of English from reading it, and I read a lot of classic British children's books as well as a lot of fairy tales. So I'm sure their rhythms appear in my writing. Also, I wrote poetry long before I wrote prose, and I still approach projects with the assumption that every word matters--which can be a problem in a 120,000-word novel!

MRM: You’ve done a lot of work on your blog, and even had an article in Faerie Magazine, about what you call the Fairy Tale Heroine’s Journey. Could you tell us a bit about that? Could this be adapted to work for any type of story, in any genre?

TG: I also gave a paper on the idea at the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts! The basic idea is that, among fairy tales that focus on a heroine, many share a specific structure. It includes steps such as the heroine receiving gifts (think of Sleeping Beauty and the fairies) and being lost in the dark woods (like Snow White after she is driven from the castle). Even though not all stories about fairy-tale heroines share this structure, the stories that have come down to us--the ones we still read and that are made into Disney movies--tend to. You can also see this pattern in Jane Eyre, since Charlotte Brontë incorporates a fairy tale substructure. It informs the way women think about their own lives--we often assume there's something wrong if our lives don't follow that pattern. It could be adapted to any kind of work, and writers can also write against it, against expectations. After all, not all fairy tales about heroines follow this pattern. There are other patterns out there.

MRM: You are an academic as well as a writer. Do you find that one career interferes with the other at times? Is it hard to shift gears from perhaps a more critical mindset to a more creative one?

TG: Yes, unfortunately! I don't find the two types of writing interfere with one another--I can move pretty easily between them. But teaching, which is my job, does interfere with writing. I love both, and I'm grateful that I get to teach writing--I can't think of a better job. But sometimes writing has to be put aside because I have lessons to plan or papers to grade. Many writers face the challenge of balancing the needs of the primary job with the desire to write. And the writers who write full time have the even harder job of making a career of it, of paying for rent and food and healthcare from their writing. Being a writer is and has always been a challenge. We are all in the long tradition of writers and artists who have struggled to produce, to live while producing, to stay sane and healthy through it all.

MRM: Have you read anything recently that you’d recommend to our readers?

TG: Actually, the two books I've read most recently are My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier and Little, Big by John Crowley. I tend to be a fairly eclectic reader: What I really look for is a kind of twistiness of plot or theme, united with a clarity and beauty of style. Both of those books have that. I would recommend both, as well as both writers, to anyone. I'll add just one more to make it a trio: Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke. When I'm not sure whether I'm allowed to write like that . . . meaning, to take certain risks in writing, I think about writers like Clarke and Crowley, who take a lot of risks. I want to be as brave as they are.

Thank you so much, Theodora Goss! And readers, go grab a copy of The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter! I'm betting you'll love it as much as I did!

ABOUT THEODORA GOSS:

Theodora Goss was born in Hungary and spent her childhood in various European countries before her family moved to the United States. Although she grew up on the classics of English literature, her writing has been influenced by an Eastern European literary tradition in which the boundaries between realism and the fantastic are often ambiguous. Her publications include the short story collection In the Forest of Forgetting (2006); Interfictions (2007), a short story anthology coedited with Delia Sherman; Voices from Fairyland (2008), a poetry anthology with critical essays and a selection of her own poems; The Thorn and the Blossom (2012), a novella in a two-sided accordion format; and the poetry collection Songs for Ophelia (2014). Her work has been translated into nine languages, including French, Japanese, and Turkish. She has been a finalist for the Nebula, Crawford, Locus, Seiun, and Mythopoeic Awards, and on the Tiptree Award Honor List. Her prose-poem "Octavia is Lost in the Hall of Masks" (2003) won the Rhysling Award and her short story "Singing of Mount Abora" (2007) won the World Fantasy Award.

The 'Doctor Who' Christmas Special Trailer Is HERE!!

July 24, 2017 by Anton Strout in News

I don't know about you, but for me, Christmas can't come fast enough! I can't wait for that mysterious visitor's annual visit...

No, I'm not talking about Santa...I'm talking about Doctor Who! The trailer just dropped for this year's Christmas special, an episode most Whovians are waiting anxiously for.

Peter Capaldi, David Bradley, Pearl Mackey, and....Mark Gatiss!! Now, if only we had a Time Lord handy to take us to Christmas NOW!

'Stranger Things 2' Trailer Has Just Dropped!

July 22, 2017 by Anton Strout in News

They had me at Dragon's Lair!

Set to the backdrop music of "Thriller," this trailer holds thrills, chills, and clues to the season to come! Poor Will, we might have guessed that life wouldn't return to normal upon his return at the end of last season... But he has his friends by his side! There's just enough time to binge watch season 1 again before Stranger Things 2 premieres on Netflix on October 27.

Are You Ready? 'Ready Player One' Trailer Revealed, and It Doesn't Disappoint!

July 22, 2017 by Anton Strout in News

Nerds everywhere rejoiced as we got our first peek at the movie adaptation of Ernest Cline's novel Ready Player One, featured at San Diego Comic-Con 2017! And it is, indeed, a "holy grail of pop culture." This is it. The "oasis" for geeks everywhere. A movie that gets us. A movie that is everything we get.

Music, visuals, pop culture references....Children of the Eighties, rejoice! This is a movie for us!

Directed by Stephen Spielberg, this movie features nods to video games, movies, novels, and more. Everything geeks loved about the book seems to be represented in the film, at least as far as can be told by the trailer. But we'll have to wait until March 2018 to know for sure!

John Barrowman Delights as Always at SDCC2017!

July 21, 2017 by Anton Strout in News

We're used to seeing John Barrowman's (Doctor Who, Torchwood, Arrow) antics--yet we never tire of them. Fans were delighted at San Diego Comic-Con yesterday when Barrowman pirouetted onto stage wearing a short sparkling TARDIS dress complete with yellow petticoat and matching Converse All-Stars. He treated the audience to singing and dancing, funny stories, and some honest discussion. He then answered questions from the audience.

There's no one like @JohnBarrowman. #sdcc pic.twitter.com/Uau1kx9IAk
— 4YE @ SDCC (@4_Y_E) July 20, 2017

Of course the topic of the new Doctor came up, and he didn't shy from addressing some of the hateful reactions seen around the internet, but his ultimate message was one of hope.

“If we buy into it, we commit to it, we go where the TARDIS takes us…we get on the TARDIS, or in the TARDIS, for the journey, for the stories.”

I'm on board if you are, Captain Jack...

Pacific Rim: Uprising Teaser, Straight from SDCC!

July 20, 2017 by Anton Strout in News

The wait for a peek at Pacific Rim: Uprising is over! The trailer just dropped at San Diego Comic Con, and it looks sleek, shiny, and inspiring. It embraces everything I love about mech--innovation, human endeavor, and the strength of mind plus matter.

What do you think?

Fans can also go to gojaeger.com to see some more awesome goodness about the movie and to join the Jaeger uprising!

Luke Skywalker's Landspeeder from Radio Flyer! For Kids...Only?

July 20, 2017 by Anton Strout in News

Parents everywhere are squealing. Those with older children vow to conceive younger ones. People who vowed off kids are reconsidering. What's got everyone so wound up?

Radio Flyer's new Landspeeder, of course!

Modeled after Luke Skywalker's X-34 landspeeder from Star Wars: A New Hope, this is a drivable vehicle that includes an interactive dashboard with lights and realistic sounds, just like Luke's. There's room for two riders, and the speeder can go up to 5 mph forward and 2 mph in reverse. It has a 12V rechargeable battery, with the charger included.

The fine print says the speeder can hold up to 130 lbs. So...it could totally hold me, right? If only I were shorter...

Luke Skywalker's Landspeeder from Radio Flyer will only be available starting 9/5/2017 at Toys R Us, and has a price tag of $499.99. That's a little above most kids' allowances, so maybe time to borrow a little from Jabba? What could go wrong?

What Makes Author and Editor Karen Bovenmyer Geek Out?

July 19, 2017 by Anton Strout in Geeking Out

Karen Bovenmyer is the author of Swift for the Sun, a romantic adventure set in the 1820s Caribbean, complete with pirates, adventure, and love. She is also the nonfiction assistant editor of Mothership Zeta magazine AND teaches at Iowa State University. But most importantly for our purposes, she is a fantastic nerd, who loves gaming, sci fi, and fantasy, and whose geeky dress making skills rival my own. I asked Karen what made her geek out while she was writing her debut novel, and she said, "The Oxford Historical Thesaurus!" I had to hear more, so here she is, telling us what got her so excited!

Let’s say you want to write a pirate novel. You’ve boned up by reading pirate books across the last three centuries and watched a huge pile of nautical movies. You’ve got all five Pirates of the Caribbean soundtracks on a repeat playlist. You sit down and start pounding out sword fights with cannonballs whizzing by…but how do you capture the feel of the time? The linguistic zeitgeist?

No sweat. The Oxford Historical Thesaurus is there for you, friend.

This subscription-only service has already been paid for by many libraries and can be accessed by logging in to your local library’s website, so don’t let that daunt (bash, dastardize, dishearten, intimidate, quail, subdue, unnerve, or vanquish) you.

In need of a malediction or curse? The OHT has nearly four hundred interjections from the ancient roots of Old English (“Lo!” meaning “Oh!”), to the creative medievals (“By the mouse-foot!” 1532), past our beloved pirates (“Shiver my timbers!” 1834), and through modern times (“By the hokey fiddle!” 1922).

Need period-specific terms for body parts? There are ninety-one for buttock, from flitch (700) to tush (1962). Warning—reading the list aloud may cause excessive giggling. Some of my favorites include bahookie (1939), bumfiddle (1675), catastrophe (1600), paddock (1475), and bewscher (1400).

English-speakers are not only good at maledictions and body parts, we’ve historically been excellent insulters also. There are eighty-three options under “good-for-nothing.” Vagabond and ragamuffin come easily to mind—but other delightful options include shackerell (1420), ragabash (1609), shabaroon (1699), and flabergudgion or slubberdegullion (1611).

It’s quite entertaining to wander the OHT using it like any other thesaurus, but its most vital use for me was fact-checking my vocabulary in my historical pirate novel SWIFT FOR THE SUN, which debuted last spring. My editor was excellent at pointing out words that she suspected were anachronistic, and the OHT was essential in finding alternate words from the correct period. Reading texts from the 1820s was an essential tool for me, and going back to the OHT to look up phrases I didn’t fully understand helped me consider if I wanted to use them or not. Take this random passage from Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson for example:

I had made my mind up in a moment, and by way of answer told him the whole story of our voyage and the predicament in which we found ourselves. He heard me with the keenest interest, and when I had done he patted me on the head.
"You're a good lad, Jim," he said; "and you're all in a clove hitch, ain't you? Well, you just put your trust in Ben Gunn—Ben Gunn's the man to do it. Would you think it likely, now, that your squire would prove a liberal-minded one in case of help—him being in a clove hitch, as you remark?"

What does Ben Gunn mean by “clove hitch” and would your readers understand what you meant? The OED’s definition is “A ‘hitch’ or mode of simply fastening a rope round a spar, etc., formed by passing the rope twice round in such a way that both ends pass under the centre part of the loop in front; it thus appears united into one loop in front and ‘cloven’ into two parallel lines at the back.” The first use was recorded in 1769. “Clove hitch” is listed in the Thesaurus under society > travel > travel by water > vessel, ship, or boat > equipment of vessel > ropes or chains other than rigging or cable > [noun] > knot used by sailors > specific.

You may find it useful to use an earlier word your readers might understand more readily. Listed with clove hitch are bowline-knot, clinch, sheepshank, or wall knot, all from 1627. Visiting the definition of the word in the OED allows you to see the logged uses of it from primary texts. In this case, all these knots were listed in John Smith’s A Sea Grammar. From there, you can visit this title in the World Catalog, and, in this case, read a scanned copy of the original text for even more ideas. Instead of clove hitch, you might choose the word “clinch” to communicate clearly to modern reader that you mean your character is “in a bind,” which itself is an anachronistic phrase that wasn’t in common use until 1851.

It’s easy to see that the OHT is fun for us word nerds, and we can spend many happy hours combing through it for interesting discoveries, but, at least in my case, reading the entries, the source materials, and the synonyms lead to new, richer writing ideas for my world-building. You might, however, set a timer to bring you back to your fiction.

Thanks so much for joining us, Karen. And readers, be sure to check out Karen's work at her website!

Star Wars: Behind the Scenes Look at 'The Last Jedi'

July 18, 2017 by Anton Strout in News

Have you seen the behind the scenes reel of The Lest Jedi? Disney and Lucasfilm released it at DIsney's D23 expo, a show celebrating film and fans, and it certainly has people talking and speculating!

Set against a gripping score, this different sort of a trailer gives fans a behind the scenes look at the actors and crew members of the movie, so we can get to hear their take on things. The trailer features snippets from folks like Daisey Ridley, Mark Hamill, Gwendolyn Christie, and even Carrie Fisher. We see characters Kylo Ren, Hux, Poe Damoren, Finn, and more, as well as some new characters. There are explosions and emotional scenes, space ships and new scenery. We get a glimpse at costumes and props in progress, as well as some new creatures that will be made possible via puppetry and CGI.

It sounds like audiences will be in for quite a trip come December 15, with cast and crew alike saying that the film is surprising, shocking at times, and keeps Star Wars fresh. At the same time, from what we can see from the reel, we can also take comfort in knowing that there will be plenty of the Star Wars we know and love in there as well.

Until then...May the Force be with you!

The Thirteenth Doctor: A Personal Reaction

July 16, 2017 by Anton Strout in Geeking Out

When BBC said that they were going to announce the thirteenth Doctor today, I, like most fans, started speculating. There were a lot of false reports and of course, most of them were saying some white guy or another was going to be in the role. And to be honest, I didn’t really blink (Of COURSE I didn’t blink…). The Doctor’s always been a guy, and while I hope someday to see a female Doctor, I was pretty sure BBC wasn’t that bold yet. There were too many trolls, too many nay-sayers, and they were too loud.

After the men’s final of Wimbledon today (congrats, Federer!), I expected to see that guy from Love, Actually, or maybe…I don’t know. Maybe a ginger dude. I freely admitted I wanted to see Sue Perkins there, but knew the chances of that were slim, and I REALLY didn’t believe we would see a female Doctor.

Then the announcement video came… And I saw this image:

As soon as I saw the Doctor's hand I started getting teary. Seriously, I wasn't committed to totally wanting a woman as Doctor. As long as whoever played the Doctor was suitable for the role and kicked ass, I would have been happy. But the feeling I got when I saw Jodie Whittaker’s hand…

The Doctor will always hold such a special place in my life. Doctor Who is my go-to happy place, where I go when things are rough. The Doctor is such a trusted friend, mentor, ally, and for that person now to be a woman... it transcends a barrier I didn't even know was there until this moment. I didn't know how much I didn't believe I would ever see a female Doctor until I actually saw that we were getting one. Then it hit me so hard.

The Doctor is like me.

And women don’t always have to be content with just being the Companion, the follower, the devotee. We can guide, we can be strong, and we can provide the comfort people need, the support and help, the leadership. We can be the strength the human race needs.

Thank you so much, BBC and crew of Doctor Who, for making this first step toward the future.

And the 13th Doctor is....

July 16, 2017 by Anton Strout in News

Meet the Thirteenth Doctor #DoctorWho #Doctor13 pic.twitter.com/txHGz9tJEe
— Doctor Who Official (@bbcdoctorwho) July 16, 2017

I think I can get behind that...

Jodie Whittaker from the series Broadchurch has been announced by BBC as playing the 13th Doctor on Doctor Who!! It will be an interesting and refreshing take on the Doctor, to be sure, and I for one am very excited to welcome the first female Doctor!

Disney Releases 'A Wrinkle In Time' Trailer!

July 16, 2017 by Anton Strout in News

Those of us who were childhood--even lifelong--fans of Madeleine L'Engle's Time Quintet, starting with the novel A Wrinkle in Time, may have had mixed reactions when we first heard the news about Disney producing a new film adaptation. It's always kind of a risk for a company to take something that's been around for so long, and that's been so beloved, and try to portray it on film. Especially a story as fantastic as L'Engle's.

Disney's possibly one of the only companies that *I* think could pull this movie off, and after seeing the release of the first trailer for the film this weekend, I admit I'm cautiously optimistic. OK FINE, I'll go out on a limb and say that, frankly, I think it looks AWESOME, and really can't wait to see if the whole film lives up to the promise of this trailer!

A Wrinkle in Time is expected in theaters on March 9, 2018! Just enough time to read the books to your little nerdlings, if you have any, or read them yourself!

As a PS to Disney themselves, I laud the fact that recent movies have had casts and themes that are representative of real people today, instead of just a small portion of society. Magic is for everyone, and EVERYONE'S dreams can come true. Please keep it up!

BBC to Announce Capaldi's Doctor Who Replacement This Sunday!

July 14, 2017 by Anton Strout in News

That's right! BBC has announced that anxious fans will finally learn who will be replacing Peter Capaldi in his role as the Doctor. There has been tons of speculation and false reports. Who will it be? Will we see our first female Doctor? Will the Doctor be GINGER? We'll all have to wait until Sunday to find out!

Exclusive News: It’s Almost Time. #DoctorWho pic.twitter.com/rB4t1RH8Dx
— Doctor Who Official (@bbcdoctorwho) July 14, 2017

The big announcement will come after the men's final match at Wimbledon on Sunday, July 16th, starting a 2PM on BBC1.

Lucy Liu Tapped to Direct Luke Cage Season 2 Episode

July 14, 2017 by Anton Strout in News

Netflix and Marvel have been pretty fearless with their commitment to diversity for the most part in their new comics-based shows, including Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Daredevil, Iron Fist, and hopefully in the upcoming Defenders as well. They've included stories with a mix of genders, sexualities, races, and backgrounds. And now, we can see that commitment goes beyond the stories to the people behind the camera as well.

Lucy Liu, who is currently starring as Dr. Joan Watson on CBS's Elemental, is going to direct the first episode of Luke Cage, Season Two. She's also directed four episodes of Elemental since the show premiered in 2014.

“When you’re dealing with a bulletproof man, it helps if you have a bulletproof director,” says executive producer Jeph Loeb. “Lucy brings a keen eye, a superb sense of story, and an obvious love of actors. She is rocking Luke Cage 2.”

And what does Lucy herself think?

“What a thrill to collaborate with Marvel and Netflix, two industry titans, who paint our world with inspiring stories and beguiling characters. It is such an honor to work with such a passionate and fearless team.”

Luke Cage 2 is expected to premiere in 2018 on Netflix.

Iceberg the Size of Delaware Breaks from Antarctica

July 12, 2017 by Anton Strout in For Science!, News

Scientists knew it was going to happen. In fact, the event too longer than they thought it would, with the last few kilometers of ice hanging on to its parent ice sheet. But a section of the Larsen C ice shelf in Antarctica that is about 2300 square miles in size has just broken off. This makes it one of the largest ice sheet break aways in human history.

The Larsen Ice Shelf has been breaking apart for several years now. In 1995 the Larsen A ice shelf broke away, and then in 2002, Larsen B joined it in its new voyage in the ocean. Scientists have been watching the crack in Larsen C grow for a few years now, since 2010 or so. While climate change is a possible cause for the ice break ups, there are other factors at play as well. Scientists call it a "geological" event versus a climate change event, though they are fairly certain that climate has had an impact on how quickly the crack has grown.

Progress of the Larsen C crack growth. The final cleave happened between July 10-12, 2017.

Scientists say it is hard to predict what the giant iceberg will do now. More than likely, it will break apart into smaller pieces, with some traveling north to warmer waters and eventually melting. Other parts might stay in the Antarctic for decades yet.

As more and more ice shelves break off and eventually melt, it will be interesting to see which science fiction becomes science fact. We live in exciting and somewhat terrifying times, indeed. Whether these events are caused by human action or purely nature, the results could be devastating for humans who live in coastal areas. I wonder what a solution to flooding coasts will be?

Game of Thrones Returns! What Does This Season Hold?

July 07, 2017 by Anton Strout in News

HBO's series Game of Thrones returns on July 16th! The series, now quite past the point where the novels by George R.R. Martin have left off, has viewers speculating, with some theories plausible, and others seemingly far-fetched. What do we REALLY know about the upcoming season?

SPOILERS: This article will mention cover events that have happened on the show thus far.

By the end of the sixth season, on Snow has been named King in the North, Cersei Lannister is sitting on the Iron Throne in King's Landing, and Daenerys Targaryen is on her way to Westeros with three dragons, Tyrion Lannister, and the Greyjoy siblings at her side. We've seen some heavy hints about Jon Snow's parentage, and we've seen old alliances fall apart as new ones are forged and vice versa. The possibilities seem endless, yet at the same time, several mysteries are at the cusp of being solved. And let's not forget the biggest threat of all: the White Walkers, who could possibly throw everyone's schemes awry.

According to HBO's latest press release, we know that the upcoming season is going to include characters Tyrion, Jaime, and Cersei Lannister, Daenerys Targaryen, Petyr Baelish, Jon Snow, Sansa, Arya, and Bran Stark, Olenna Tyrell, Theon Greyjoy, Samwell Tarly, Brienne of Tarth, Davos Seaworth, Missandei, Bronn, Jorah Mormont, Varys, Tormund Giantsbane, Gilly, Melisandre, Ellaria Sand, Euron Greyjoy, Sandor “The Hound” Clegane, and Beric Dondarrion. But there are also new, unnamed characters being introduced this season, who will be played by actors Jim Broadbent, Tom Hopper, Megan Parkinson and Ed Sheeran.

Three new episodes will air in July, entitled "Dragonstone," "Stormborn," and "The Queen's Justice." There will be revolts, betrayals, schemes, mistakes, conquests, and unexpected visitors. Who will win, and who will die? You'll have to tune in to HBO to find out!

Lucasfilm Announces Ron Howard as Director for Star Wars Han Solo Film

June 22, 2017 by Anton Strout in News

Lucasfilm has just announced that famed director Ron Howard will be taking the director's chair for the upcoming and as yet untitled Han Solo film in the Star Wars film franchise.

“At Lucasfilm, we believe the highest goal of each film is to delight, carrying forward the spirit of the saga that George Lucas began forty years ago,” says president of Lucasfilm Kathleen Kennedy. “With that in mind, we’re thrilled to announce that Ron Howard will step in to direct the untitled Han Solo film. We have a wonderful script, an incredible cast and crew, and the absolute commitment to make a great movie. Filming will resume the 10th of July.”

This announcement comes after the film's former directors, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, left the movie mid-production. It had been reported that for months, the two directors, known for their work on The Lego Movie and others, struggled with creative differences between themselves and the production crew.

“Unfortunately, our vision and process weren’t aligned with our partners on this project. We normally aren’t fans of the phrase ‘creative differences’ but for once this cliché is true. We are really proud of the amazing and world-class work of our cast and crew,” Phil Lord and Christopher Miller said in their statement a couple days ago.

The Han Solo film should be in good hands, however, with Ron Howard at the helm. Howard has directed such blockbusters as Willow, A Beautiful Mind, The Da Vinci Code, as well as producing and narrating the series Arrested Development. It will be interesting, to say the least, to see what he has in store for the Star Wars franchise!