CassaDark Tour, The Adam Project Review, and Star One Review

The CassaDark tour continues! Today’s stop is at Thoughts in Progress.

Here are last week’s and this week’s stops – a variety of guest post topics and one wacky interview:
April 6 – Diane Burton
April 6 – Kathy McKendry
April 7 – Cherie Colyer
April 8 – Toi Thomas
April 11 – Jemi Fraser
April 12 – Life by Chocolate – Robyn Alana Engel
April 13 – Gwen Gardner
April 14 – A to Z Challenge Blog
April 15 – Thoughts in Progress

And a special thanks to the dozens who posted about my book release. You guys rock!

For those who missed it:

“Cavanaugh returns to the world of his Cassa Series…for a fourth inventive space opera.” – Publisher’s Weekly

Find CassaDark at iTunes, Amazon, Barnes and Nobel, Kobo, Scribed, and Goodreads
And would love it if you could vote for it on Goodreads’ Can’t Wait Sci-Fi Fantasy of 2022 and mark it Want to Read.

The Adam Project Review

From the IMDB: After accidentally crash-landing in 2022, time-traveling fighter pilot Adam Reed teams up with his 12-year-old self for a mission to save the future.

Starring Ryan Reynolds, Walker Scobell, Mark Ruffalo, Jennifer Garner, and Zoe Saldana.
Direct to NetFlix and starring Reynolds, I didn’t have high hopes for this one. Which meant I was in for a big surprise!
Yes, it’s Reynolds being Reynolds, a role he does so well (with or without cursing). But the story was solid, the acting solid, and the special effects really good. And we really enjoyed it!
The film has heart, and the center of it is the two Adams. Neither is perfect – the elder scolds the younger for being so hard on his mom and then vice versa when it comes to their dad. There are some tender moments, probably the best one is when mom enters a bar for a glass of wine and elder Adam talks to her.
The movie is about conspiracy and elder Adam searching for his wife, played by Saldana. There are tense moments along with lots of banter between the two Adams.
Again, this one really surprised me. Recommended!

Star One – Revel in Time Album Review

From the mastermind and master musician, Arjen Lucassen (Ayreon), comes the third Star One album, focusing on time-travel movies.
Unlike previous albums, this one is a double CD. We get the full album, plus all eleven songs sung by alternate singers. This is a nice touch by Lucassen to include the alternates in the final product.
Lest you forget from my reviews of the other two albums, Star One creates songs about science fiction movies. (And sometimes shows.) So half the fun is figuring out what movie is represented by each song.
The title track is fun – Revel in Time. These lyrics should give you a clue as to the movie:

Climb aboard this strange machine
Hang on, enjoy the ride
Jump into this crazy dream
Step inside and let it fly

Napoleon Bonaparte, Beethoven
Joan of Arc, Genghis Khan, Abe Lincoln
Sigmund Freud, Socrates, and Billy
Snatched from time
Kidnapped from the annals of history

Yes, that is Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure!

See if you can guess this one (answer next week):

Oh newly arrived back in old 55
You're not even alive yet
But what have you done... mother and son
You're fading away, yeah

And when the lightning strikes
You have to be precise
Exactly ten-o-four
And not a second before

Overall, this is the most rocking Star One yet. A little heavier with a lot of fun.
Favorite songs - Bridge of Life, sung by Damian Wilson (movie – Frequency) and Today is Yesterday, sung by Dan Swano (movie – Groundhog Day).
If you like fun rock/prog with a nostalgic touch, this is the album for you.
Highly recommended!

Visited some of my tour stops? (And big thanks to those who’ve purchased my book!) Seen The Adam Project? Heard of Star One? Can you guess the movie? Think you could guess the other films from the lyrics?

Be sure to visit the Thoughts in Progress!

Plus we have the honor of Janice Hardy visiting the IWSG site this week.

Insecure Writer’s Support Group and Favorite Movies with Jemi and Jacqui

It’s time for another group posting of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group! Time to release our fears to the world – or offer encouragement to those who are feeling neurotic. If you’d like to join us, click on the tab above and sign up. We post the first Wednesday of every month. I encourage everyone to visit at least a dozen new blogs and leave a comment. Your words might be the encouragement someone needs.


The awesome co-hosts today are Susan Baury Rouchard, Nancy Gideon, Jennifer Lane, Jennifer Hawes, Chemist Ken, and Chrys Fey!

August 5 question - Quote: "Although I have written a short story collection, the form found me and not the other way around. Don't write short stories, novels or poems. Just write your truth and your stories will mold into the shapes they need to be."
Have you ever written a piece that became a form, or even a genre, you hadn't planned on writing in? Or do you choose a form/genre in advance?

I knew I was going for science fiction and a full length story. I probably envisioned something a bit longer than what I came up with though. All four of my novels have come in on the shorter end of the word count for the genre. I could force it but that’s just the way I write.

I did try a poem once. I think a nice way to describe the results was one freaking big mess…

The IWSG Anthology Contest is ending soon!

Guidelines and rules:
Word count: 4500-6000
Genre: Science Fiction
Theme: Dark Matter
Submissions accepted: May 6 - September 2, 2020
How to enter: Send your polished, formatted (double-spaced, no footers or headers), previously unpublished story to admin @ insecurewriterssupportgroup.com before the deadline passes. Please include your full contact details, your social links, and if you are part of the Blogging, Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter IWSG group.
Judging: The IWSG admins will create a shortlist of the best stories. The shortlist will then be sent to our official judges.
Our judges: Dan Koboldt, Lynda R. Young, Colleen Oefelein, Damien Larkin, Ion Newcombe, Julie Gwinn, and David Powers King

Voyagers is on sale!

Pick it up for $2.99 on Amazon

Favorite Movies with Jemi Fraser

Thanks for inviting me to the blog today, Alex! Everyone loves movies so I thought I’d check in with my characters for their favourites!

• Former SEAL Sawyer (Reaching For Normal) is helping reintegrate wolves into Vermont. He watches wildlife documentaries. His favourite movie from childhood is Never Cry Wolf based on Farley Mowat’s book.
• Freelance writer Myla (Reaching For Normal) has never had a home or a family. She adores adventures and prefers to watch movies that are full of fun. Her favourite all-time movie is ET.
• Quinn (Reaching For Risks) owns a sporting goods store. He prefers adventure movies with happy endings, but don’t tell anyone that last part. His favourite movie as a kid was Jumanji.
• Darby (Reaching For Risks) owns a Victorian-style B&B. She’s a romantic at heart and adores rom coms. She has a special affinity for Gracie in Miss Congeniality.
• Rayce (Reaching For Everything) is a carpenter and furniture maker. He’d rather be in his workshop that in front of a screen, but when he does watch, give him a superhero movie any day.
• Kami (Reaching For Everything) is a former tennis pro whose life has been anything but easy. When she does have time for a movie, she’s all about the escape a movie provides. Princess/General Leia is her favourite character.

What about you? Anyone have the same tastes as my characters?

Welcome to Bloo Moose, Vermont where love is worth the risk! Small-town contemporary romance with an element of suspense. Each book is a stand-alone.

Reaching For Normal
She’s no damsel in distress. He’s no Prince Charming. But if they don’t team up it won’t be only wolves that’ll be dying.

Amazon.com.    Amazon.ca.    Apple.     Kobo.    Google Play.

Barnes and Noble.    Goodreads.    Bookbub

Reaching For Risks
One Reno List for the B&B. One Risk List for herself. One sexy retailer who should be the last one she wants.

Amazon.com.    Amazon.ca.    Apple.    Kobo.     Google Play

Barnes and Noble.     Goodreads.     Bookbub

Reaching For Everything
Love means nothing in tennis. Can he prove to her that love means everything in life?

Amazon.com.    Amazon.ca.     Apple.     Kobo.     Google Play

Barnes and Noble.    Goodreads.    Bookbub

Jemi Fraser writes both fiction and nonfiction. Her nonfiction work focuses on the ways that dementia has impacted her family. Her fiction work varies from contemporary romance to suspense and flash fiction. Years as a teacher have taught Jemi that life is short and that happy endings are a must.
Jemi lives in Northern Ontario, Canada where snow is always a topic of conversation and the autumn leaves make everything better.

Website                      Facebook                  Twitter           

Amazon                     BookBub                   Goodreads

Just Jemi blog

Top Ten Movies about Prehistoric Man By Jacqui Murray

With the publication of my latest novel, Against All Odds, Book 3 in the Crossroads trilogy and the fourth I've written about man's prehistory, I become maybe the most prolific writer in a genre with few readers. My stories are even more tangential because they deal with man's world a million or more years in the past. Don't even ask why I chose this subgenre. It's complicated, which is code for I don't understand.

Alex asked me to come up with ten movies from my genre and share them with his readers. Sure, why not? And then I found out how challenging this was. Yes, there are a lot of movies about prehistory but most of them are a fictionalized world not based on fact. I found few that even vaguely resembled what really happened Back Then so I settled for the ones that were popular.
Here's my list:

The Clan of the Cave Bear
A young Cro-Magnon woman is separated from her family and rescued by Neanderthals who then raise her as their own. This movie was based on Jean Auel's wildly popular and well-researched novel, Clan of the Cave Bear. Readers loved her vision of early man and devoured everything in her series, Earth's Children.

1 Million BC
Tumak is banished from his tribe and meets Loana (Raquel Welch) who belongs to a different tribe and must fight others to win her favor. Little about this tale is based on fact but it's a typical boy-meets-girl sort of love story.
10,000 BC
When warriors in what we now call the Ural Mountains capture the mate of a powerful mammoth hunter, he with his tribe embark on an odyssey to save her. Though not well grounded in fact and panned by critics, the audience loved it.
Quest for Fire
Three Neanderthal tribesmen search for a new fire source. Though Quest for Fire often lacks a factual foundation, it does attempt to present early man in a respectful light and was well accepted by the movie industry.

Ice Age
Set during the Ice Age, this computer-animated film tells the story (in a humorous way) of a sabertooth tiger, a sloth, and a woolly mammoth who find a lost human infant and try to return him to his tribe.
Iceman
A Neolithic clan is attacked while their leader is away hunting. He returns to find most of his tribe dead, including his family, and wants revenge. This is based on a true story of the mummy called Iceman, one of the best known frozen humans in the world.
Ao, the Last Hunter
When his Neanderthal clan, including his wife and baby girl, are massacred, Ao leaves the North to join his twin brother. On his long and adventurous journey, he meets Aki, a Homo sapiens woman.
Walking with Cavemen
A BBC docudrama that portrays the life of early man.
#10
Truth, I couldn't find a #10. Some movies made other people's Top Ten lists--His Prehistoric Past (directed by Charley Chaplin), Three Ages (directed by Buster Keaton), Early Man (directed by Nick Park)--but these focused more on humor and entertainment than a portrayal of man's far past. If you liked these, I'd love to hear from you in the comments.

That's it! If you love prehistoric fiction but want it to be accurate, check out my latest novel, Against All Odds. Here's a quick summary:
Set 850,000 years ago, a time when man populated most of Eurasia, our ancestors were a violent species, fully capable of addressing the many hardships that threatened his survival except for one: future man, a smarter version of himself, one destined to obliterate all those who came before.
Available digitally (print soon) at: Kindle US   Kindle UK   Kindle CA   Kindle AU

Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy, the Rowe-Delamagente thrillers, and the Man vs. Nature saga. She is also the author/editor of over a hundred books on integrating tech into education, adjunct professor of technology in education, blog webmaster, an Amazon Vine Voice,  a columnist for NEA Today, and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics. Look for her next prehistoric fiction, Against All Odds, Summer 2020. You can find her tech ed books at her publisher’s website, Structured Learning

Does the genre choose you or do you choose the genre? Want to watch some of those movies with the Bloo Moose crew? What are your favorite prehistoric movies? And are you entering the IWSG Anthology Contest – one month to go!

I’ll be back next Monday with a bunch of movie reviews for you!

Insecure Writer’s Support Group, IWSG Anthology Contest, Really Great Villains, Bad Adaptations and New Stories, and New Releases

The awesome co-hosts for the April 1 posting of the IWSG are Diane Burton, JH Moncrieff, Anna @ Emaginette, Erika Beebe, Karen @ Reprobate Typewriter, and Lisa Buie-Collard!

Today’s question -
The IWSG’s focus is on our writers. Each month, from all over the globe, we are a united group sharing our insecurities, our troubles, and our pain. So, in this time when our world is in crisis with the covid-19 pandemic, our optional question this month is: how are things in your world?

We’re blessed there aren’t a lot of cases in our area. I’m still going to work! (Apparently I am essential.) But with most businesses now shut down and a stay at home order in place, there is a lot less traffic on the road.

I have faith we will survive this and my heart goes out to those who’ve been affected, either through the virus or the shut downs. Until it’s over, I’ll just keep praying and doing my part to keep me, my family, and everyone around me safe.

We’re revving up for the annual IWSG Anthology Contest!

It doesn’t open until May 6, but here’s a sneak peek.

The genre – science fiction!

And the amazing judges –

Dan Koboldt, author and #SFFpit founder

Lynda R. Young, author

Colleen Oefelein, agent, The Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency

Damien Larkin, author

Ion Newcombe, editor and publisher

Julie Gwinn, agent, The Seymour Agency

David Powers King, author

The IWSG Instagram prompts for April:

Really Great Villains by Jemi Frasier

Alex and I share a love of SF & Fantasy movies and books. Among my favourites are LotR, HP, Firefly, BSG, McCaffrey’s PERN, and of course Star Wars & Star Trek.

One of the commonalities we find in these stories is a really great villain. Sauron. Voldemort & the Death Eaters. Reavers. Thread. 1st Order/Vader/Palpatine. Cylons. The Borg.

Some adjectives for those great villains might be: subversive, sneaky, vile, insidious, unscrupulous, relentless. Great villains made for good reading and good watching, but aren’t so great in real life.

My book, Dancing With Dementia, deals with real life and a real life villain. Dementia. Like Thread from PERN, our villain isn’t human or alien, it’s not sentient. But it is a villain nonetheless and those adjectives apply.

Like any good story, Dancing With Dementia showcases our battle against our villain. We may not have lightsabers, wands, or phasers, but we do have our own weapons. Patience and a sense of humour are probably the most effective for us.

Having the Force on our side would be a good thing though!

It’s a pleasure to be participating in author Jemi Fraser’s DANCING WITH DEMENTIA, Recognizing and Coping with the Early Stages of Dementia MC Book Tours Blog Tour through today.
The author is offering a tour-wide international giveaway of an Amazon Gift Card. More information on the giveaway is listed below.

Recognizing and Coping with the Early Stages of Dementia by Jemi Fraser
ISBN-13: 978-1-9991258-1-3

Dementia and Alzheimer’s touch the lives of millions around the world, but so much is still unknown.
As first-generation Canadians, we didn’t recognize the early warning signs. We didn’t know the differences between regular aging and the early stages of dementia. We’ve made mistakes but we’ve learned a lot.
DANCING WITH DEMENTIA will help you:
•Identify those early warning signs
•Use visuals to improve communication
•Choose your words wisely
•Redirect and reassure
•Stay calm and cope with your own emotions
•Consider nursing home options
•Improve caregiver self-care
We’ve learned to dance the early steps of the disease with our love and laughter intact. If you are looking for help recognizing early signposts along with practical ways to cope with early Dementia and Alzheimer’s, this book is for you.

DANCING WITH DEMENTIA buy links:
Amazon.com              Amazon.ca          Apple Books       Barnes & Noble          Kobo

Add DANCING WITH DEMENTIA to your Goodreads shelf

Jemi Fraser writes both fiction and nonfiction. Her nonfiction work focuses on the ways that dementia has impacted her family. Her fiction work varies from contemporary romance to suspense and flash fiction. Years as a teacher have taught Jemi that life is short and that happy endings are a must.
Jemi lives in Northern Ontario, Canada where snow is always a topic of conversation and the autumn leaves make everything better.

For more on Jemi and her writing, visit her following sites:

Website          Just Jemi Blog       Dancing With Dementia blog 

Amazon Page        BookBub      Goodreads       Facebook       Twitter       Quick Tips Videos

This tour-wide giveaway is for a $20 Amazon Gift Card. The giveaway is open internationally. To enter the giveaway, just click on this LINK and follow the instructions.

When Bad Movie Adaptations Inspire New Stories

About 12 years ago, when my wife and I were still newlyweds, we spent many a weekend watching a ton of movies (her favorites and mine). Then one Friday night, we watched an adaptation of one of her favorite fantasy books. It seemed weird to me. Maybe something you’d see on the Disney channel, but not in theaters. So then we discussed movie adaptations, and why it seems so difficult for Hollywood to stick with the source material. Then, out of the blue, my wife gave me a challenge: “write something I would like”. You see, until that point, I was a fledgling writer who had only written a Sci Fi trilogy. She’s more into fantasy, especially of the fairytale persuasion. I thought about it. I took her up on it, but not as a rewrite of other fairy tales. That’s been done over and over to death. Something different. A discovery novel. It would star a princess. It would need magical creatures. Oh, and a dragon! Definitely needs a dragon. In six months, I drafted my first fantasy novel with my wife’s interests in mind. Luckily for me, she loved it, and she still loves it to this day. I’m curious how an adaptation of it would turn out?

If you want in on this magical goodness, The Dragon’s Heart is available now in paperback and ebook, on Amazon. Also, it’s free with Kindle Unlimited. Free is good.

A princess. A dragon. Their quest.
Terrible things happen whenever Princess Celesia falls in love—she blacks out and attacks her suitors, which makes an alliance with a more powerful nation impossible. Believing that she’s cursed, Celesia is given two choices: marry without love, or be responsible for her kingdom’s demise. Instead, she sneaks off in search of a remedy. She doesn’t make it far when she encounters a dragon who bears a curse of his own—he is a prince, desperate to reclaim his humanity before the dragon takes over. He's heard of a stone that can lift both of their curses, but neither of them can find it alone, and they’re not the only ones after it. An evil alchemist is intent on using it to steal the land’s magic and dominate the realm. Only together, with the help of an even greater magic, can Celesia and the dragon stop this evil, or be bound forever by their curses.

David was born in beautiful downtown Burbank, California where his love for film inspired him to write. His works include the internationally published YA Fantasy Woven and The Undead Road: My Zombie Summer. An avid fan of science fiction and fantasy, David also has a soft spot for zombies and the paranormal. He now lives in the mountain West with his wife and four children. Find David - Blog, Twitter, and Amazon

Find The Dragon's Heart on Amazon and Goodreads

New Releases!

Finding the Perfect Mate by Stacy McKitrick

Finding the Perfect Mate just got way more complicated.

Find it at iTunes, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Google Play, Smashwords, and Goodreads

The Elusive by Pat Hatt

After thinking their long struggle had come to an end, Sally, Travis, and the others are thrust into more danger than ever before.

Find it on Amazon

How are you coping? Think you’ll enter the IWSG Anthology Contest? (Many of you have time to write now.) Who do you consider to be a really great villain? Has a bad movie adaptation ever inspired you? And if you’re doing the A to Z Challenge, good luck.

Special thanks to Tara Tyler for this badge and the prize in the mail: