Taken a couple of weeks ago while out on a drive. Taken on my Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS8 and post-processing done in Paint.Net.

Article for Inside the Circle: What the World Needs Now is NOT an Xbox 720

Shiny Shelf review: Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi #0

Recent upload to my Lightbox account:  The Hasslehoff Godhead demands obedience and women

(taken from an old pinball machine at a local kids’ fun center)

I will again be at the Farpoint sci-fi convention this year, held at the Crown Plaza in Timonium, MD. So far I will be participating on the following panels:

Blogging

Saturday 2pm, Ridgley 2

Comics – Paper or Web?

Saturday 4pm, Ridgely 2

Audio Dramas – I Can Do That?

Sunday 2pm, Ridgely 2

I’m grateful to have been invited back again and I’m looking forward to the event.  Clearly those blackmail photos are coming through for me.

Hopefully I’ll see some of you there!

I’m not big into shooting flowers. As far as photography goes, it’s just not something I’m terribly into.  But I have tried it and this is my favorite shot in that photographic arena. Taken on my Canon PowerShot G10.

It’s my pleasure to unveil the (work-in-progress) cover to my next eBook, which is also the next installment in the Infinity, Ltd series, called Forever Winter.  The cover is by series’ artist K. Woo.

This one looks to be a novella and is due for a June release.

Here is the blurb:

Hades, Lord of the Greek Underworld, is dead and his wife Persephone has gone missing. In her rage, Persephone’s mother, the goddess Demeter, has acquired an ancient power, older than even the gods themselves. Allied with the Frost Giants, Demeter has begun a march across the Olympic Pantheon, conquering the depths of Tartarus to the Elysian Fields and onwards towards Mount Olympus, leaving only the melancholic embrace of Winter in their wake. But she will not stop there. Demeter has decreed that all of reality of must pay for what has been done to her daughter- and she will not stop until her vengeance is sated.

Into this fray Palequus and Peter are sent with a dual purpose. First, they must discover the truth behind Hades’ assassination and Peresphone’s disappearance. In doing so, they hope to accomplish their second objective- to stop Demeter’s mad war against the Pantheon before it spills over into the other mythological realities, setting off a war between the old gods.

But as they delve deeper into the mystery, a horrifying truth is uncovered that threatens all of creation. And Palequus and Peter find themselves alone against Demeter’s army and their ultimate objective: Earth.

This edition of Vox Bomb is late (okay, really late, since it’s been several weeks since I’ve written one, but really people, stop judging me already). Originally on Fridays, I’m pushing it to a Sunday post, something to wrap up the week, braindump whatever insanity is still lingering in-between the neurons, and move ahead. And so, here we are on Monday, because sod all.

***

Picked up a new camera last week- a Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS8 (I’m pretty sure that’s the correct name, and I’m too lazy to verify). I love (and still have) my Canon G10, but for everyday, carry-around-with-me-every-moment photography, it’s just too big. The Lumix is nice and svelte; I like its aesthetics; and it has 16x optical zoom. Oh, and a Leica lens.

I’m giving up the RAW shooting of the G10, but to be honest, I still have so far to go in being an amateur photographer, that RAW files were just a pain (especially after rebuilding my PC and not being able to find the original G10 discs). I’m hoping the 16x zoom will be a boon, as well as the 24mm wide angle.

But let’s be honest, I’ll probably be taking pictures of trash or something.

***

You know what I hate? Marketing BS. Nothing irks me more when companies try to use marketing terminology to zombie you into believing their wares is so much more than what it is.

(And yes, I used “zombie” as a verb… most likely incorrect but work with me here…)

So this little nugget arrives in my inbox, from RIM regarding their upcoming release of BlackBerry OS 7.1. Now bare in mind, their true next-generation OS is supposed to be BB10, coming late this year, and BlackBerry OS 7.1 is an incremental release to software dating back years:

“BlackBerry 7 delivered a next-generation platform for our customers around the world and the range of software updates announced today build upon the strengths of that platform to further enhance the mobile experience and make life easier, from managing daily tasks to planning big adventures,” said Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO at Research In Motion.

Blech.

“Delivered a next-generation platform”? Sure. It was stillborn at OS 6.  The current 7.x platform is a lame duck OS; think of Apple’s MacOS 9.x as OS X was just around the corner.

Yeah.

***

Check out my new Facebook writer page!

***

I’ve been trying out Lightbox, since Instagr.am is dragging their feet with an Android version of their app. Here are a couple of samples of my social photography experiment.

***

Shameless plugs links:

My review of Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol over at Shiny Shelf

Thoughts on Batman: Arkham City over at Inside the Circle

Red Adept Reviews gave my eBook, “Unnatural Time”, 4.5 stars out of 5!

Author interview The Indie View conducted with yours truly

Until next week…

Did I mention that I will continue to post my photography here?

This was taken at my sister-in-law’s wedding a few years back. It was my favorite shot, taken with my Canon PowerShot G10.

One of the best compliments I received on my photography? My sister-in-law looked at my photos from the wedding and said they were better than the ones from the photographer she hired. Score.

"Alone" by Ayu Peeters

And so here we are in 2012.

I’m not all that big on New Year’s resolutions. There’s the statistical part of it- a lot of them simply don’t work out. But there’s also that cynic in me that figures, well, I should be able to resolve to do something any time I want, and not just wait for the New Year.

But in looking over the blog over the past several weeks, things have been light. I’ve always had this blog to first and foremost promote my work and to offer thoughts and insights on whatever topic interested me. But I think some of that has become a bit of a drag.

Take reviews for example. Now, I generally do reviews for other sites such as Shiny Shelf, but I would do other ones to add content to this site. But to be honest, I’m sort of done with that. I still plan to review for other sites, but I’ll be shifting those observations here to more quick thoughts on a book or game if I am so inclined.

With regards to the writing, I still plan on discussing it here. As you may have noticed, with the self-publishing I do via eBooks, I consider myself an “indie author” (even though I have also been published in print and have an audio drama coming out soon), and I like the label. In these times of eBook readers gaining prominence and eBook sales skyrocketing, there are a growing number of authors who are feeling empowered and riding into the Wild Wild West of eBook publishing.  There’s that sense of being like a band starting out in their garage, playing into the night, recording demos, and uploading them to music sharing sites to get noticed. Everyone wants a slice of that authorial recognition and money to be made. I follow a number of fellow indie authors, and I constantly see them self-promoting their work, often at the $0.99 range. While I don’t agree longer works of fiction should be priced at that amount, I give them credit for trying. But authors shouldn’t feel the need to bottom-barrel it on pricing, but that’s a topic for a different day.

I’m a gadget geek at heart, so I’ll still be bringing up that stuff from time to time. Same with Xbox gaming. Because I loves me some Xbox.

While I’m being honest, that Vox Camera publishing schedule looks like it’s already shot to hell. But I won’t be changing it yet, since I need to figure out a few things first. There’s a lesson in there somewhere; one day I may even see it.

Roll on, 2012…

For various sundry reasons, I chose Lightbox to test drive. It seems to have a decent amount of activity in the Android realm, the app looked to be well-reviewed, and I liked the clean, simple look of the site. Your pictures are uploaded and displayed as postcard-style postings. The Android app gives you options to tweak the pictures with various filters (though there are other apps with more options, such as Vignette).  I’m still wondering how this would be different than say a Tumblr, other than it is specifically focused on pictures (whereas Tumblr is anything you want to throw at it… but you could obviously do just pictures). Or, I could just use this blog as an outlet for the same types of posts.

It is a neat way to share random pictures from your life, from either moody to humorous and everything in-between. Like my work phone apparently mocking my life choices below:

If you use Lightbox, Instagram, or any other similar services, I’d love to hear from you on what you like about them and what you tend to use them for.