Year end contest...

Another contest...  Win an autographed Signature Edition of Convergence 2012 and custom hand-made bookmark.  All you gotta do is use the tool below!

Today is Day 1 of Convergence 2012

In the story Convergence 2012, Xanari and Kuthanaga arrive on the Earth today, November 12th 2011 to mark 1 billion humans to save...  Who will receive the mark?  Find out at http://www.convergence2012.com

New book projects updates...

My two new projects:
GODKILL

This is my new book.  It's written just needs polish.  The synopsis for it is:

"Ryan Peterson gets a startling present on his eighteenth birthday.  Abducted by Andrea (a ghost of a powerful Salem witch who claims to be his mother) Ryan is told that he’s been chosen to kill God.  Convinced that he’s in a bizarre dream, he plays along until he finds out everything Andrea tells him is true.   Aided by a golden demon named Loki, Ryan sets out to learn the truth and in the process learns about love, life and lies. "

Editing is going pretty well and I hope to have it polished by the new year or soon after.









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CHOICES

Which is still in it formation stage...
I have a two chapter sneak peek you can check out at http://www.convergence2012.com/ChoicesSnipet.pdf it's rough but you'll get the basic idea of where I'm going with it.  I'm actually pretty excited about it.

Dumb da dumb dumb... America?

So I've been pushing the book pretty hard on social platforms (facebook, twitter, myspace, and a handful of other more niche sites) and I gotta tell ya, selling a book ain't easy!  So I sat and thought about it...  Why is it so hard for me to even GIVE AWAY a book (there's a coupon on this blog which allows you to get the book for free and efforts on said social networks also were dismal)?  I mean who doesn't want free stuff?  The answer?  A lot of people if it means using their brains...

I've spoken to some of my friends and point blank asked them.  "Why haven't you read my book?"  I get a myriad of answers ranging from "Not enough time", "I don't read very often", "It's too much of a time investment", etc.  Some of these same people I see post on Facebook postings like "It's Saturday and I don't have anything to do..." WTF?

While researching this post I discovered the following from a Feb 2011 posting on cbsnews.com:

"On average, Americans ages 15 to 24 spend almost two hours a day watching TV, and only seven minutes of their daily leisure time on reading."

" found an increasing number of adult Americans were not even reading one book a year."

When I saw those numbers I was like "Oh damn... That sucks."

But I think it goes much deeper then people not "liking" to read, or not having enough time when the average 15 - 24 potential reader is spending that much time watching TV.

It's my belief that the American culture is to blame here on many levels.  America is the land of instant gratification.  We get our food fast, we got DVRs to watch our shows when we want and skip the commercials...  There is almost a 'fast' solution for everything.  I bet one day we'll have book imprints where someone actually takes the time and reads the book and enjoys it and then the "image" of their experience will be for sale.  People will have the experience of reading but never even opened the book.  I think that will be what eventually comes.  As for now the mountain that is the American reader continues to get higher and harder to climb.  Unless I luck out and get one of those magnificent talking heads to tell the American sheep that they need to read my book it'll have to be one person at a time...  Unless I can figure out how to record someone reading a book and then sell that!  (Anyone wanna play lab rat?)

Sun's Coronal Mass Ejection hits Earth's Magnetic Field

According to SpaceWeather.com "A CME hit Earth's magnetic field on Oct. 24th at approximately 1800 UT (02:00 pm EDT). According to analysts at the Goddard Space Weather Lab, the impact caused a strong compression of Earth's magnetic field, allowing solar wind to penetrate all the way down to geosynchronous orbit for a brief period between 19:06 UT and 19:11 UT. Earth-orbiting spacecraft could have been directly exposed to solar wind plasma during that time."

The impact also sparked a geomagnetic storm which will last the next three days sparking lots of auroras...

Auroras... "These are the strongest and most beautiful auroras I've ever seen," says Øye, a veteran observer of Northern Lights. "I can only imagine what the display must have been further north."

High-latitude sky watchers should remain alert for auroras as Earth's magnetic field continues to reverberate from the CME impact. The best time to look is usually during the hours around local midnight.

Is it me or is Cali Rockin?

So is it me or is there a LOT of seismic activity going on in California right now?

This is the activity within last 7 days...  1,305 quakes?  Granted the majority of these are small, but this does seem to be a lot.  Anyone know anything about quakes?  Share if you do...  I have a part of the story where the Bay Area is hit with a pretty large one (8.0)...

Unknown comet hits sun and causes solar flares...

Image linked from SpaceWeather.com (story Monday Oct 3, 2011)

Oct 1st a previously unknown comet (detected the day before) slams into the sun and then two flares occurred.  Pretty amazing stuff.  One flare is heading for us.  Supposed to cause some spectacular auroras, etc.  The only thing that kinda bugs me is that Planet Slayers use stars as weapons and seeing this reminded me of them instantly.

"The part of the eruption centered on sunspot 1305 hurled a coronal mass ejection toward Earth. The relatively slow-moving (500 km/s) cloud is expected to reach our planet on Oct. 4th or 5th, possibly causing geomagnetic storms when it arrives. "

Normally this type of stuff doesn't even register with me, but when you take into consideration the flare we had in 1859 things like this can become a very scary situation.

Carrington Super Flare
On 1 September 1859, Carrington and Richard Hodgson, another English amateur astronomer, independently made the first observations of a solar flare. World wide reports on the effects of the geomagnetic storm of 1859 were compiled and published by Elias Loomis which support the observations of Carrington and Balfour Stewart Magnetic storm On 1 September 1859, Carrington and Richard Hodgson, another English amateur astronomer, independently made the first observations of a solar flare. World wide reports on the effects of the geomagnetic storm of 1859 were compiled and published by Elias Loomis which support the observations of Carrington and Balfour Stewart

Magnetic storm
On September 1–2, 1859, the largest recorded geomagnetic storm occurred. Aurorae were seen around the world, most notably over the Caribbean; also noteworthy were those over the Rocky Mountains; that were so bright that their glow awoke gold miners, who began preparing breakfast because they thought it was morning. According to professor Daniel Baker of the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, "people in the northeastern U.S. could read newspaper print just from the light of the aurora."

Instead of telegraph machines wigging out, we'd have larger problems...

Telegraph systems all over Europe and North America failed, in some cases even shocking telegraph operators. Telegraph pylons threw sparks and telegraph paper spontaneously caught fire. Some telegraph systems appeared to continue to send and receive messages despite having been disconnected from their power supplies.

What would happen if we had a similar event to the one in 1859? (Video above explains some of it...)

The flare coming doesn't appear to be a big deal so far, but it was eerie to see the video and think of the Planet Slayers...

~ Rob

Dreams...

Had dreams this morning...  Dreamed of Angels, Indigo Children, Aliens and the Devil.  Four sets of dreams, all related.  Every time I try to convey the messages of the dreams, i break down and cry almost uncontrollably.  Understand one key thing about me.  I don't cry.  Not usually.  Don't get me wrong, I've cried about broken hearts, friends passing, etc.  But I don't cry for no real reason.  Every time I try to discuss these dreams I break down.  I can't explain it.  I'll research it and see what I come up with...  ~Rob

Bay Area Earthquake got my Attention...

Scary...  I have a huge earthquake which happens in CONVERGENCE 2012 around Daly City area and that one was Huge!  Thankfully this was a small one (only 3.5) but still shocking to see.  The earthqauke in my story doesn't happen until after January 2012...

Google+ = Threat to Facebook? (Maybe)

Gonna make an EARLY prediction here. Google+ is going to slay Facebook (if Google can get their head out of their ass)... Just saying.  (From a tech point of view I love what Google is putting out there)  Obviously Facebook is scared and knows this is coming since they just introduced a pretty significant face-lift (which some people are not digging) as well as changing the entire way Facebook will work over the next few months...

Signature Edition Book giveaway!

I'm giving away 10 copies of CONVERGENCE 2012 "Signature Edition" over at GoodReads.com Check out the link below!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Convergence 2012

by Robert R. Ricks

Giveaway ends January 02, 2012.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Working on a new T-Shirt design...

Here's the concept... I'm also playing with the idea of silk screening the image in black on a white tee and then Tie-Dying it with a blueish spiral...  I'll keep you posted!

A review that caught my eye!

I've been getting a bunch of cool reviews lately, but I really REALLY liked this one...

"I recommend this book. I'm kind of a geek when it comes to books. This one was good. On a scale from 1 to 10, 10 being like Dune or Ender's Game I can't put it down and 1 being like Twilight (ahhhh my eyes burn.... can't read it) This book was a solid 6+. I would rank it with some of Stephen Kings early work when he was all over the place but raw." - Chris White


Keep em coming!


Rob

You can get printed version from Barnes and Noble now...

Just went to bn.com and saw that you can get the print version from there as well.  Gonna go into the local store and see if they'll carry copies in the stores as well as online.  Thought that was pretty cool.
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/convergence-2012

Rob

The Secret World MMO gets a launch date...

Yes, I like MMOs, do I get to play very often?  Nope.  I used to play the shit out of WoW and recently RIFT... One game that's I've been keeping my eye on for a while though is The Secret World from Funcom...

Well they announced today that it will ship April 2012...  With BETA beginning August 26 (just a few days before my B-Day).  So I'm gonna try luck at getting in on the beta...

This game is shaping up to be pretty sick.

Go check it out at: http://www.thesecretworld.com/

(oh yeah by the way, back is feeling much better...  In case anyone was wondering)

Rob

Didn't even know they made this... Flawless Victory!

Last year I saw what looked like a pretty cool rework of Mortal Kombat.  Last night I was talking with my nephews about it and we went looking for it.  Imagine my surprise when I saw they did a whole season of "Mortal Kombat: Legacy".  As webisodes.

I've only watched the very first episode and it looked good.  Why does this excite me?  Because things like this really show that the web is a viable distribution model for content.  We know there's a bunch of YouTube channels which can launch careers, etc., but this is the first content I've seen that wasn't "Funny".  I follow stuff like Ray William Johnson's "=3" and similar, but this is first serious effort at Sci-fi that I'm digging so far.  With each episode reaching over 3.5 million hits I guess I'm not alone.

Anyways if you like Mortal Kombat and want to check out a reboot of it check out the youtube channel at:
http://www.youtube.com/show/mortalkombatlegacy

If you know of other stuff that is as good if not better send me a link!

Rob

Pain...

So up nice and early to get some work done...  I'm walking down the stairs and missed a step and caught myself as I was falling and twisted.  Normally this wouldn't be a big deal for your average person.  For me though this is a disaster because I have two slipped discs in my back. (spinal disc herniation).

I've lived with this for the past 10 years and usually I just deal with it.  On my "good days" I have a sensation that extends from top right outer thigh to my knee a sensation that is best described as a sunburn with a cat scratching it with an occasional slice of a hot dagger deep into my thigh.

On bad days the pain will extend upwards into my groin area and the dagger strikes are almost constant.

When I overdo it (moving, working out incorrectly, bending in a weird way, etc) It escalates and then I have a few new symptoms.  #1 I can barely move around or get out of bed because my body get's "stuck"  there's some angles which cause such pain as to make my legs give out.  One angle is straight up and down as I stand completely erect.

Well falling just now has tweaked the back and as I sit here in front of my machine I am on the verge of tears because it hurts badly.  Gonna try to ice it quickly and see if that helps.

SIDE NOTE:  Where the hell is Kuthanaga when you need him.  Hell, the Earth's Milk would probably help remedy this as well...    

What the hell is the SIGNATURE EDITION?

The CONVERGENCE 2012 SIGNATURE EDITION is a special edition of the book which has a custom seal on the cover of the book as well as the front page.  It is signed on the cover and dedicated to whomever you wish on the front page.  Additionally, I have this campaign going on called "The Marked" which is on the official website as well as in the back of the book that is like a special "Thank you" to the people who support me with this book.  All SIGNATURE EDITION buyers will be listed among The Marked.  The book will be updated every six months (print & eBook).  I also will be adding to the blog as well so you'll be able to prove to people that you were instrumental in helping me continue my career in writing!

So what does it set you back?  It's $25 (+$6 S&H) and I keep a few books on hand to try to speed the whole process up.

So you want one? Well you can grab a copy at http://www.convergence2012.com/signature/

Rob

Question: "Do I Believe in Aliens?"...

OK, so I got asked if I believe in aliens.

Short answer: Yes

Long answer: I've always been very curious about the universe we live in and wondered if there was other life out there in the ocean of stars.  I'm also one of those "Show me proof".

Where do I find proof?  Pyramids come to mind, Stonehenge, crop circles (without broken stalks) and Nazca lines in Peru are just a few of the things that make me say "Hmmmm".  Why?  because why the hell would someone go through all the trouble of constructing things like the Nazca lines where you can't enjoy them at ground level?  I mean imagine the conversation between the builder and his friend...
"Hey Bill I just finished my masterpiece..."
"Yeah?  Where is it?"
"Um dude, we're standing on it."
"Looks like a fuckin' line to me..."
"What?!  It's a bird man!"
"Yeah, sure it is..."
"Crap.  It's a bird man..."        

Do I think that aliens come down and anal probe hillbillies? Yes, but probably just to fuck with their heads.  I'm a firm believer that first contact has come and gone and there are some alien species among us, probably something similar to the whole Men in Black thing...

I think the ones that are among us are very good at hiding because we human beings are very susceptible to FEAR, I think we're more likely to kill something first and then be like "Oh that was a peace ambassador here to offer us help against an invading armada... Ooops my bad." later.

I suspect the ones that are here, are observing and scoring us.  Once we get past "Dumb-ass hairless monkey" status, then they may attempt to offer us a ticket to the big show.  I also wouldn't be surprised if they're standing right next to us and can see us but we can't typically see them because maybe they are slightly off-phased?  Maybe they reside in an alternate dimension that is very thin and acts like a two-way mirror?  Hell I wouldn't be surprised if the Earth is the equivalent to a galactic "Jersey Shore" that the aliens get around and watch...  Speaking of Jersey Shore, could you imagine if the survival of the human race depended on being scored based off of some random "reality-based" TV show and it was Jersey Shore?   Oh man, we'd be fucked...  Just saying.

Original Video Trailer for Convergence 2012

So how did I decide to write CONVERGENCE 2012?

I've been asked this a couple of times and so I figured the blog is a good place to answer it.

September 2009 I went to bed like any other time and had a crazy dream about an elf but not an elf.  The dream basically presented to me the concept of what if mythology was based off of alien encounters?  Then I woke up with a very clear image of Xanari fixed in my mind.

I went about my day and the dream wouldn't let me go.  I kept thinking about Xanari and laughed it away as I continued my daily chores.

The next night I slept again and dreamed of a white liquid which was truly remarkable.  Healing properties and the ability to shift its taste to whatever I wanted.  When I woke from that dream I scratched my chin and said "WTF?" because this dream also plagued me all day long, but it was now mixing with Xanari and no matter what was going on I kept revisiting those pieces.

The odd dreams kept coming and I kept telling my wife about it and I finally decided to start writing.  When I sat down to write the title was instantly in my head CONVERGENCE 2012.  I realized that even in 2009 that calling the book CONVERGENCE 2012 was potentially a very bad idea as typically a book when COMPLETED can takes over a year and a half to get picked up and published.

It didn't phase me and I started writing.  Something amazing happened when I sat down.  I didn't have a timeline, I didn't know where the story was going to go and when I started typing it just happened. Even now when I go back and reread it (I've now read the book 6 times) I'm still mystified.  Why?  because I don't remember writing large chunks of the story.  It was as if the book wrote itself.  (Spooky)...

In any event that is how I decided to write CONVERGENCE 2012...