Phones, Clones, and Takeovers!

I'm super excited to bring you Tara Tyler taking time to talk tech (holy alliteration batman!). For those of you who don't already know, Tara is celebrating the release of her third book and the second in her Detective Cooper Series. I've been reading it, and it's a great techno thriller with feels similar to Asimov (in the imagining a world with technological advancements) but with modern style and story telling. And with that: Take it away Tara!

Look into the Future!
I love finding useful new gadgets. It's also part of my job to come up with plausible future technology - like from the movie, ROBOTS, "See a need. Fill a need." So from time to time I like to see what the techie geeks are working on for our future needs or enjoyment! Here are some of my faves from this article - they have more photos.

Holographic phone - the "Apple Black Hole"
It's similar to my Compucenter Imager! A desktop 3D, touchable phone.

Clear phone
A glass, see-through phone. Not sure why, but it looks cool.

Wrist PC
It's got a giant screen, for a watch, but still so tiny to work with, I can't imagine it being useful. And you have to remove it to use it. Keep trying, guys!

Fitness @ Work
Now that's something I could use. Exercise in my chair while I work. I love it!

And the best for last...

The Mercator
This is the closest I've seen to my QV wrist imager in Pop Travel and Simulation - the concept is tres cool! Would love it to happen!

That's a bout it. They had some other cool looking, futuristic items like clock radios, lamps, bikes, chargers, etc. But it's all mainly aesthetics or combined gadgets we already have, not really enhanced functions, yet.

What I can't wait to see is a really cool robot that does housework. Roomba is a start. But I need a Rosie! In my lifetime? Probably not.

What useful gadget would you like to see in real life?


Thanks for letting me visit, Rena! I can't wait to help you with your release!! (Make sure you tell me when!)

SIMULATION
by Tara Tyler
Release Date: Sept 14, 2015

In 2082, androids are an essential part of daily life. Some are helpful, some would make better toasters, and some are so human-like they're creepy. Back in Atlanta, Detective Cooper's latest client has him searching for her boyfriend who she thinks was replaced by a simulation, an illegal clone android. The guy also happens to be a popular new congressman.

As if the case wasn't frustrating enough, Cooper keeps crossing paths with his ex, FBI Agent Geri Harper who's looking for the same guy. As Cooper closes in, Geri is kidnapped. But when she resurfaces in Washington and goes on a killing spree, he knows it isn't her. Now under suspicion himself, Cooper must find the real Geri to prove her innocence, not to mention hunt down the powerful villain behind it all. Never a dull moment.

SIMULATION delivers more technology, more intense action, more humor, and more, distinct new characters. Come along for the ride.

Available Now!

Amazon ~~ Barnes & Noble ~~ Kindle

Goodreads giveaway!

Tara Tyler writes sci fi and fantasy action-adventures from her little corner of the world in Ohio as she tries to keep up with her three boys and coach husband. Always making time to write, she sometimes puts off chores and lets laundry pile up... hence, she's also the Lazy Housewife, offering advice and tips to other gals out there trying to do it all without going crazy. She and her housewife friends blog at The Really Real Housewives of America.

tara tyler talks and tweets and facebooks

And don't forget the Rafflecopter!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Writing and remodelling, the late night edition

Things get lost in the media sometimes

Sometimes, reality gets lost in the media. The news about the county next door was tracking on the national news for a couple days. To be clear, when you live in my part of California, your county is never on the news for a good reason, and Lake County has spent much of the summer attempting to burn itself to the ground. And succeeding. The fire started on Saturday, quickly grew to enormous, and then went straight to absurd. If you don't want to sleep peacefully again, I recommend watching some of the videos people posted on YouTube. On Monday, it was all over the national news. By Tuesday it was in the side bar of the news (and on Tuesday the fire was growing, forcing different people to evacuate, burning more buildings to the ground. By Wednesday it was three pages back. It makes me think about how the last thing we saw on the news from Nepal hadn't done much followup on that enormous earthquake. How the coverage of Japan after the tsunami was focused almost entirely unbelievable footage, but that we cut out only after it looked like the nuclear reactors weren't going to cause a complete meltdown. How much of the story are we missing because the draw of news is to cover the bigger stories, the more unbelievable the better. Just some food for thought, but it doesn't look like the news cares about follow through. If you want to know the whole truth, there isn't a venue for that because we consume awe and shock and fear. Sometimes I wonder that as we are consuming the media, it is eating us as well.

Just a little something for the Monday

Absolutely one of my favorite things as a writer is getting to have other writers on my blog.

Especially when it's a RELEASE DAY!!!

Tara Tyler's latest book, Simulation is here!

After Pop Travel, Geri convinced Cooper to move back to Atlanta, but for familiar reasons, things didn't work out... In Simulation, Geri is fighting her way back to full-fledged, solo agent status, but first has to deal with one more annoying sidekick on an equally annoying case. Meanwhile, Cooper takes his mind off Geri leaving him by throwing himself into his work, investigating an illegal clone android simulation operation. Sparks fly when Cooper and Geri's cases lead them down the same path. Of course Hasan wants to help them with their cases, and connives a plan to get them back together in the niddle of all the chaos!

SIMULATION delivers more technology, more intense action, more humor, and more exciting new characters. Come along for the ride.

SIMULATION
by Tara Tyler
Release Date: Sept 14, 2015

In 2082, androids are an essential part of daily life. Some are helpful, some would make better toasters, and some are so human-like they're creepy. Back in Atlanta, Detective Cooper's latest client has him searching for her boyfriend who she thinks was replaced by a simulation, an illegal clone android. The guy also happens to be a popular new congressman.

As if the case wasn't frustrating enough, Cooper keeps crossing paths with his ex, FBI Agent Geri Harper who's looking for the same guy. As Cooper closes in, Geri is kidnapped. But when she resurfaces in Washington and goes on a killing spree, he knows it isn't her. Now under suspicion himself, Cooper must find the real Geri to prove her innocence, not to mention hunt down the powerful villain behind it all. Never a dull moment.

Available Now!

Amazon Print ~~ Amazon Kindle ~~ Barnes & Noble
Goodreads giveaway!

Tara Tyler writes sci fi and fantasy action-adventures from her little corner of the world in Ohio as she tries to keep up with her three boys and coach husband. Always making time to write, she sometimes puts off chores and lets laundry pile up... hence, she's also the Lazy Housewife, offering advice and tips to other gals out there trying to do it all without going crazy. She and her housewife friends blog at The Really Real Housewives of America.

tara tyler talks and tweets and facebooks

And don't forget the Rafflecopter!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Stupid silly fan girl moment

So, I've been slowly becoming addicted to subscription boxes (to be clear, slowly was, one month I had one subscription box and the next month I realize I'm signed on for four, and contemplating a fifth--No, I don't have a problem, why do you ask?)

I signed up because I've been suffering from a bit of apathy when it comes to reading. Sometimes, books really strike a cord and I  love them. Sometimes, books that I feel like I should really love are just sort of "meh."

I ran into too many of the "meh" books--and these books sold really, really well, that I was starting to doubt my whole "reads enough to consider being a writer" thing. It was bad.

So I made sure that one of my subscription boxes was for books (two of them are for books, but that's a longer story).

Subscription boxes are expensive, so I laid out some rules:

Rule 1. I would read everything they sent me.

Rule 2. If I couldn't be bothered to read it, I'd cancel the subscription.

Rule 3. If I liked it, I'd make sure to tell others about it and rate the book on Amazon and Goodreads.


How'd it go?

So a couple weeks ago, I got my first box. It was a Lit Cube box



Inside was the book Spelled, by Betsy Schow. And it was a blast. It was light hearted, fun, adventurous and a retelling of a fun favorite bit of story. It had enough hints of the original Wizard of Oz books that it kept tickling the old memories from when I was a kid, and it was just fun. I had a hard time with the first couple chapters, but then everything was smooth sailing after those first bits of chapters. I'll be posting my reviews up on Goodreads and Amazon soon. In the mean time, it was a fun read, and I enjoyed it.

IWSG: a little something

Insecure Writer's Support Group is brought to you by the concerted efforts of The NINJA Captain, Alex. This month he's roped Julie Flanders, Murees Dupé, Dolorah at Book Lover, Christine Rains, and Heather Gardner into cohosting, so be sure to visit their blogs and give them a high five for patrolling the neighborhood.

I am not gonna lie: I had a super deep and meaningful post lined up. But sometimes, deep and meaningful isn't as important as a laugh (or even a smile). So without further ado, I unleash upon the internet my first comic!

Feel free to repost, pin, whatever, but please link it back to me.