Dun Dun Dun Dun Dudun Dun Dudun

I'm sure some of you already have it stuck in your head. The Imperial March, Vader's theme song, the most powerful earworm known to man behind Rick Astley's Never Gonna Give You Up (great, just Rick-rolled myself). One of my guildies posted the video below on our forum and I have to say that it tweaked my Star Wars dork bone. I've always been an Imp at heart, despite the fact that I'll be playing with the Galactic Republic in SWTOR and I just wanted to share this lovely piece of genius with you.

So, what do you think? Awesome? An amazing use of archaic technology? A total waste of time?

Now, onto the winners of the Scavenger hunt! Huge congrats go to Natalie, winner of the Kindle Mini! Megan gets her hands on some delicious homemade goods from August McLaughlin, and Na will be receiving a wonderful bundle of books by Lynn Kelley and Sheila Seabrook! Thanks so much for the wonderful participation by both bloggers and hunters! You made this birthday special.

Star Wars: The Old Republic

The accent gets me every time

I'm going to let you folks in on a little secret that I've been trying to hide: I'm a gamer chick. For awhile, a couple years or so, I tried to deny it. When I play video games, I tend to do so at the detriment of everything else, especially when it comes to MMOs. In World of Warcraft, I was in a guild that was pretty hardcore, and it essentially became a second job. I felt like if I wasn't working or at school, I needed to be in the game. It was too much, so I foreswore all games, even my beloved Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (Gaz is so yummy).

But now Star Wars: The Old Republic is coming out. My first venture into the MMO genre was with SW: Galaxies, and though that ended up being an epic disaster, I cling to the hope that TOR will rock my virtual world. I simply cannot deny the call of another Star Wars MMO. I've already pre-ordered. I'm leaning toward Bounty Hunter or Imperial Agent at the moment (yeah, I tend to cheer for the bad guys. I can't help myself). But this time, I'm going to play to have fun, not to please others. If it takes me ages to level up, so be it. I'll enjoy it while I do. I already have a job; the game is going to be my release, not my stressor.

So who else is going to join me in the fight against good? Or evil, if you swing that way, just know I will be coming after you with my full arsenal and pretty pink armor. 

And on that note, I'm going to go finish this book, so I can play Call of Duty and not feel guilty. I need my Gaz fix! 

Indie Book of the Month - Voidhawk

It's that time again, folks. The first of the month has rolled around (well, it really snuck in. September disappeared on me), and I offer up a new indie book of the month. For October, I'm featuring a book that I'm currently reading and thoroughly enjoying. It offers a unique steampunky take on sci-fi.

Voidhawk, written by Jason Halstead, follows the young and naive Dexter Silverhawk on his quest to captain his own ship. With the help of his dwarf friend and a couple other outcasts, Dexter will face challenges he never dreamed off.

One of the reviews for this book describes it as Star Wars-meets-Firefly-meets-Pirates of the Caribbean. Ok, so I'm paraphrasing, but it does mention all three of those in the review. And so far, it's living up to the hype. Still need another reason to read it? It's only $.99. There, you have no excuse. Go buy it, devour it, then come back and let me know what you thought.

About Jason:
Jason Halstead spends his daytime hours as an IT Manager in the automotive industry. In his spare time Jason enjoys spending time with his wife and two children, writing, and powerlifting.

Jason's true calling is in front of a keyboard, though it wasn't until he washed the foul taste of working with a couple of publishers out of his mouth before he was able to fully realize it. These days he publishes his books through his own imprint after a rigorous and abusive treatment by a collection of editors and beta readers. Don't feel sorry for him though, he likes the abuse!

Want to know more about Jason and find his other books? Check out his website and blog!

Changing a Book After Its Published

Some authors, based on reviews and suggestions, change a book after it has been published. I'm not talking about fixing punctuation, grammar, typos, etc. Those are changes that should be made. I'm talking about plot changes, rearranging paragraphs, even deleting entire characters.

To me, that just seems wrong. It's like when George Lucas started messing with Star Wars in his "Special Editions". Adding deleted scenes is one thing. I think it would be cool to see a section in the back of a book of those scenes, maybe with little notes throughout the book telling us what page the scene is on. But changing plot lines, deleting/adding sentences throughout the book, stuff like that, it makes me uneasy.

So what do you guys think? Should a book be reworked to that extent once it's been published?

Laser Guns are for Losers

Yeah, you heard me. Whatcha gonna do about it, huh? Just kidding. Please don't hurt me.

But seriously... I want to qualify a few things first. My only real knowledge about laser guns comes from movies and books. I adore the Star Wars universe and own all the movies, most of the books, and several of the video games. I thoroughly enjoy logging onto KotOR (1 or 2) and kicking some butt, and I've had my eye on SW:TOR, though I really do not need another game to sink my time and money into in lieu of everything else.

There is something exciting about sci-fi worlds that draw you in and make you want more. I mean, Han Solo with a laser gun? Yum! But when you start to think about it, does it really work? Pew, pew! Stormtroopers are flying everywhere with smoking holes in their chests! It looks cool, for sure, but it doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Lasers are hot. They cauterize immediately. So why would humans (beings who seem to really like violence) advance their technology in a way that would cause less damage and death?

I think what will really happen is bullets and guns as they are today will continue to evolve. Bullets do a lot of damage if used right. They rip through organs and bounce around and stuff. That extra movement, movement you don't get from a laser gun, is what really causes the most chaos. Bullets have already advanced quite a bit. There are incendiary rounds, armor-piercing bullets, and all sorts of other cool things. I can easily see bullets that contain blades that snap out once they've entered a target, or self-propelled tracker bullets.

So, what do you think? Does the history of violence lay in laser guns? Or do you have another idea?