10 Badass Heavy Metal & Alternative Tracks to Fuel Your Wicked Writing
Put these songs on when you want to slip into the zone
By David M. Swindle
For this list, we’re going heavy — these are the metal and alternative tracks to help you get focused and creative while writing. Presented in no particular order, save for my pride for my brother’s debut album…
“Now her master stared into the storm-wracked sky, challenging it to defy him.”
“Ask the animals, and they will teach you” — Job 12:7
By Keith Korman
In this beautifully inspired retelling of the Gospels, we see Jesus and his disciples in the Holy Land through the eyes of the animals—especially his intrepid and loyal dog, Eden. With a wise, old donkey, innocent lambs, and legions of curious field mice—the animals follow their master’s journey across Galilee and onto Jerusalem, rapt with awe and wonder and bearing great tidings—even if they don’t fully comprehend the divine events they witness.
Simple, clear, and spiritually profound, Eden is for readers of all ages, this artful retelling is captivating, moving, and alive with the joy you felt the first time you opened the Bible.
Eden is available for purchase here on Amazon.
New Fiction: Dust Up
By Mark Ellis
The thing was, I didn’t know anything about cars. I mean, I’d never even had the hood up on one. My entire experience with motor vehicles involved having driven around in my parent’s lumbering Buick Invicta station wagon, while still living at home. I was always running to the store for my mother, always picking up my younger brother from school. It was a boon for Mom when I got my license. But that didn’t qualify me for anything remotely to do with automotive maintenance. My father did all that.
I had opted for one of the dorms at State for my freshman year, this was 1984, and the campus amenities, including proximity to a small commercial district nearby, made it possible for students to attend without needing a car. Most things you needed were within walking distance. The cost of college was no slam dunk for my family. To spare them the cost of a car and insurance helped. Suffice it to say that I left home with a clear understanding of the challenges I faced—I’d decided to pursue a degree in occupational therapy—but absolutely no clue about what made internal combustion engines tick.
My new boyfriend, Rick, had no such blind spot. He loved all things vehicular and had a special place in his heart for his burnt orange Plymouth Duster. It was a 1972 hot rod, with a raked-up rear end, a mysteriously louvered back window, and huge tires Rick called “slicks.” He had also installed a special muffler, called a “glass-pack” that gave the engine a low-end guttural sound. He liked to brag that because of a special carburetor he exchanged for the factory carburetor, “my 340 block can beat any 440 block in town.”
The Libertarian Solution to the Telepath Problem
By Tamara Wilhite
Science fiction tends to assume that the solution to containing those with unusual powers is a statist solution. Let’s look at the fictional institutions that were created to control super-powered people like telepaths and how libertarians could handle the issue ethically.
For the mutants in the X-Men series, there is a Mutant Registration Act. Enforcement was via armed police and robot Sentinels created to round them those it can identify. What happens to those rounded up? There were at least several facilities that experimented on unwillingly kidnapped and detained mutants. Civil rights? What civil rights?
Unless you have a rich benefactor and are able to hide in plain sight separated willingly from society (Xavier’s School for the Gifted), you’re hiding on your own, in government custody or part of a criminal gang.
PreTeena: May 21 – May 27, 2018
Sunday Comics!
By Allison Barrows
You won’t want to miss these hilarious cartoons depicting the ups and downs of adolescence. Now each week’s strips will debut on Sundays as the lead strip of Liberty Island’s Sunday Comics feature. If you draw a comic and would like to have your work featured on Sundays, please contact us: [email protected]
The Barred Owl: One of Our Friends that Lives in the Trees Near our Neighborhood Park
By David Churchill Barrow
Submit your photographs of nature and the outdoor life to [email protected] to participate in this weekly feature exploring the natural world.
Photos of 2 Liberty Island Authors at Barnes & Noble Signing Events
By David M. Swindle
Before you go on summer vacation, pick up on Amazon two novels that are absolutely perfect for beach reading: Currency by L Todd Wood and Jonah: A Novel of Men and the Sea by Howard Butcher both offer thrilling stories set around the ocean.
20 Basic Law Lessons For Writers
On Behalf of All Lawyers, Never Put These Mistakes In Your Writing Again!
By Amie Gibbons
Have you ever watched a show or read a book where the characters are in your profession and the writers just get so many things wrong? I don’t mean tiny details, I mean the big things that everybody in the profession knows because they are so basic. Almost like people who make the most obvious of grammar mistakes. It just makes you twitch to read it. (No, ending a sentence with a preposition does not count as grammatically incorrect anymore, so don’t nail me on that one!) I read a post recently from a doctor criticizing doctor shows for what they get wrong and just went, “Yes, exactly!”
Enter Our Spring Writing Contest: Fantastic Fathers & Magical Mothers
Two Week Extended Deadline: June 6
By David M. Swindle
Premise: Write a short story or the first chapter of a novel in the fantasy genre (any of its sub-genres), featuring themes involving fathers, mothers, or parenting. 8,000 words maximum. Extended deadline: June 6. Date of publishing: June 14-20 (Father’s Day)
New Fiction: All That Once Was Good
By Tom Cosentino
Frankie Azzolino adjusted his Yankee cap as he sat on his front steps waiting for the early morning clouds to tell him whether they would let him and his friends play baseball on the field behind the elementary school. It was his first week of summer vacation having just finished 5thgrade and he and his friends had vowed to play baseball every day over the summer. The mid-June mornings in Syracuse had a hard time letting go of the nighttime chill and even if it didn’t rain, the outfield wouldn’t shake off the morning dew until they were a few innings into their first game, but only rain would keep them from playing.
His neighbor emerged onto his front steps, but he was looking up and down the street between looking down to check his watch. The clouds didn’t seem to interest him at all.
“Good morning, Mister Thomas,” Frankie said as he waved.
“Morning, Frankie,” Mr. Thomas said with his ever-present smile.
The Thomas’s had moved in the year before and were the first black family on the block. Before they moved in Frankie’s mother had told him they were a “little different”. He watched them move in for an hour trying to figure out what was different about them. After spending all that time watching, the only difference he could conclude was that Mr. Thomas drove a brand new 1966 Buick Electra. There weren’t many new cars in their working class neighborhood.
