The Elysian Chronicle: August 2007

Inside Heaven’s Realm

It’s no secret that mornachts have infiltrated Elysia’s southern front. It’s also no secret the infiltrators have keen eyesight—even at night—and that the danger of getting shot out of the skies poses a real threat for all cherubians fighting in the south. Something about this scenario should cause suspicion for all Elysian Chronicles readers—as it does for Davian and many RSOs. Cherubians can fly high in the skies—higher than the range of their own arrows. One must wonder, therefore, how the mornachts are able to shoot them down. Do they have better arrows? Better bows? And is it really the mornachts who have discovered this new technology, or is something else going on? It’s a question that probably enters Davian’s mind even as he concentrates on unearthing the perpetrators behind the Third Battle Conspiracy, and it leave readers with something to think about as they await Out of the Shadows, the newest installment of The Elysian Chronicles.

What do you think? Leave a comment if you suspect somthing fishy....

Breaking News

Out of the Shadows: Book II of the Elysian Chronicles is now in the hand of advance readers!
I’ve finished the second draft of OOTS and it’s now in the hands of my advance readers. It’s due to my publisher by the end of the month. If you want to receive a postcard, notifying you as soon as it’s released, go to my website at http://www.elysianchronicles.com/OOTS_notification.htm and fill out the form!

M. B. Weston a Guest at Dragon*Con!
I'll be speaking on a few panels at Dragon*Con, a sci-fi/fantasy/gaming convention in Atlanta over Labor Day Weekend. Are any of you planning on going to Dragon*Con? Leave a comment, and come find me at the ArcheBooks booth and say hi!

Website Updates (www.elysianchronicles.com)

A Prophecy Forgotten T-Shirts Now for Sale!
Check them out in the new Elysian Chronicles Merchandise section or click on the below link! http://www.elysianchronicles.com/Merchandise.htm

View Excerpts from the First Chapter of OOTS
I’m offering a preview of the first chapter of Out of the Shadows: Book II of the Elysian Chronicles. Visit: http://www.elysianchronicles.com/oots_sample_ch.htm or the Out of the Shadows section of the website. I’ll be updating it every month, so keep checking!

Stay Tuned For:
· A little surprise or two in the OOTS section.
· Updated book signings & speaking events. Keep checking to see if I’ll be in your area!
· Book Club information

Author Events

Book Signings:
· August 4th: BabelCon, Baton Rouge, LA.
· August 11th: Borders, Gulf Coast Town Center, Ft. Myers. 1:00 to 3:00.
· August 18th: Borders, GCTC, Ft. Myers. 1:00 to 3:00.
· August 25th: Borders, GCTC, Ft. Myers. 1:00 to 3:00.
· August 28th: Longshore Lake Book Club 7:00

Young Writers of Naples
Join me and other high school students at Barnes & Noble from 10:00-12:00 on the 3rd Saturday of each month.

Summer Writing Program at Borders:
I’ll be teaching writing workshops for at Borders at Gulf Coast Town Center in Ft. Myers the last three Saturdays in August from 3:00 to 5:00 on Plot & Structure, Character Development, and Show Don’t Tell.

Open Mike Night @ Barnes & Noble
Come join me at Open Mike Night at Barnes & Noble Naples on the 1st Tuesday night of each month! Bring your writing, your singing voice, or your instrument (or any combination of the 3), and let’s have some fun!

Sign up for the Elysian Chronicle

M. B. Weston's E-newsletter

Make sure to sign up for M. B. Weston's e-newsletter and receive the latest information about the Elysian Chronicles at: http://www.elysianchronicles.com/Newsletter_request.htm.

Symptoms of Fried Brain

I’m beginning to experience symptoms of classic Fried Brain. Fried Brain is a medical term for the condition brought on by many factors, including: stress, fear, time crunches, lack of sleep, and book deadlines. Symptoms of Fried Brain include, but are not limited to:

1. Overindulgence in coffee and/or espresso
2. Insomnia (see above)
3. Sensory organ shutdown (i.e. not noticing anything going on around you)
4. Moments of senility and/or forgetfulness
5. Exhaustion
6. Fogginess when thinking
   

If you have or experience any of these symptoms, you may be experiencing Fried Brain. The only known cures are: 1) give up on whatever dream you’re trying to accomplish, 2) indulge in more of symptom one, and 3) meet your deadline.

I began to realize I was showing the classic signs of Fried Brain when I walked into the bank today. First, some history. For the past month while I’ve been on the road, I’ve had to drag my computer and huge purse everywhere. Each time I’d get out of my car, I’d be dragging everything in to either a book signing or a coffee shop where I would write/answer e-mail/etc. All the time, every day. So today, I get out of the car and go into the bank. As I’m standing in line, the assistant manager comes up to me and gives me a weird look. “Looks like you’ve got a lot of stuff,” he said. I closed my eyes in embarrassment and said, “I’ve got a backpack on, don’t I?” He nodded. And there I was, standing in the middle of the bank with my huge, heavy back pack on and my purse that is the size of a mammoth’s ear.

Fried Brain.

So I immediately drove to PJ’s and indulged in symptom one.

Anyone else out there have Fried Brain, or know what to do about it?

BabelCon Installment 6: My Tour of the USS Alabama

Greg and I stopped by the USS Alabama—a World War II Battleship in Mobile, AL—as we drove back to Naples after BabelCon. We got to tour the ship itself and an old submarine. Here are a few things that I’ve decided.

First, I don’t like being inside a submarine. If you ever meet someone in the Navy who has to work on a submarine, shake his or her hand and thank them doubly for their service to our country. Subs are tiny. Way too tiny. I can’t imagine being stuck on that thing for weeks at a time. And it’s not like you can go outside for some fresh air if you get stir crazy, or if you just want to get away from someone annoying.

Second, all the stairs on both the ship and the sub were steep. Ick! I had to take a few deep breaths each time I went down.

Third, the battleship was huge! And it had everything—even a soda fountain. They had their own doctor and dentist, a barber, laundry. The guns on the battleship shot sixteen inch diameter bullets, and they could shoot them for over twenty miles. And the weird thing was that they could do everything—navigation, shooting, everything—without computers!

Fourth, it was stinking hot below deck and inside. I guess they didn’t air condition the ships, and I thought a lot about how this ship must have done in the pacific when we fought Japan. I guess it’s so easy to forget how much our military service men and women have sacrificed for this country. They had to endure non-air-conditioned situations often.

Fifth, the teamwork involved between all divisions of the armed forces was amazing. It takes 140 men to fire the big guns. (You’ll see the big guns in my pictures to follow.) Then, it takes a whole bunch of battleships to guard an aircraft carrier—or it used to. I’m told that air craft carriers now have their own defense systems. Everyone has to work together in order to get just one air craft carrier pilot into the air. That, and my husband kept explaining to me how the battleships were used in Normandy—how they shot the beaches before our boys arrived to give them a fighting chance. Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force working together. Wow!

Many of you might be wondering why I decided to spend three hours in the hot sun checking out a battleship. Well, you’ll just have to wait until Book III of The Elysian Chronicles.

Tags: USS Alabama, battleship, submarine, BabelCon

Photos From the USS Alabama

The USS Alabama

You're not going to believe this, but this is the deck of the ship, and not all of it!

I'm sitting on one of the ship's "little guns."

These are the big guns--16" calliber! (See the above picture of the bullet.) Greg is the little guy in the black shirt and shorts that you can barely see. He's there for scale.

My husband, Greg, standing next to a bullet for the ship's "big guns." This is why you don't want to go challenging a battleship.

This is me standing next to the USS Alabama's propeller.

This gives a whole new meaning to "Weigh Anchor!"

I couldn't resist! I'm Queen of the World!

With the proper leverage, I might be able to get out of here. Where are the sword toting blacksmith and the crazy pirate when you need them?

I liked this shot, and it took a while for me to frame. The gun on the ground is what military folk refer to as "anti-aircraft."

This is a Marine amphibious...thing. Not exactly something you want to see coming up the beach!

Here, Greg is standing next to a Russian tank that was sold to the Iraqis and left abandoned in Kuwait during the first Gulf War.

You can see the WWII submarine we toured in the background behind all the cars.

I think this is the missle room inside the sub. A maniquin is "checking out" the missles. I had to stop taking pictures because the submarine was so small that I just wanted to look at everything and get out.

A swiftboat--John Kerry's political demise.

Below, you can see some artwork on the planes (and one yellow cart-thing). I took these pictures to give me an illustration of the military sense of humor. Sometimes, these little things can help my writing more than the research.

In Memory of Phil Rizzuto

This is a sad day for the Bronx Bombers. Phil Rizzuto, aka Scooter to the Yankee faithful, passed away. For those of you who aren't familiar with baseball, Phil Rizzuto was part of the dynasty that was the New York Yankees back in the 50's when they won almost every World Series imaginable. A lovable teammate (and the target of many team pranks), Phil went on to become a Yankees broadcaster and was known for his classic line, "Holy Cow!"

For me, Phil Rizzuto was an inspiration to me because of his tenacity. He tried out for the--oh dear. Without looking it up, I believe it was the Brooklyn Dodgers, but it could have been the New York Giants. Anyhow, Casey Stengel told him he would never become a major league baseball player. Funny, Phil Rizzuto was still the Yankee short stop when Stengel became their skipper. Before my publisher bought A Prophecy Forgotten, I used to display a little slip of paper on my desk that said something like this:

Some idiot traded Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees.
Some idiot told Phil Rizzuto he couldn't play short.
Some idiot ignored Brad Pitt's audition.
Some idiot rejected Harry Potter.
Life is full of idiots. KEEP WRITING!

Every time I felt like giving up, I'd take a look at that slip of paper for encouragement. So thank you, Scooter, for your example of not giving up even when you're rejected.

Tags: Phil Rizzuto, Baseball, New York Yankees

Out of the Shadows is Now in the Hands of My Advance Readers

Done!

Well, not really. But I did just the the almost second draft of Out of the Shadows: Book II of the Elysian Chronicles into the hands of my advance readers. It's got a few holes, but it's basically complete. Yeah! Now onto finishing the third draft before August 31, 2007.