McCrone Group - Micrographia and Holiday Cards

This month (Oct 2012) I had the privilege of touring and speaking at the McCrone Group in Chicago (thanks to Chuck Zona and Kathy Cyr, Hooke College of Applied Sciences Dean and Director of Program Development respectively). Their educational/training branch is aptly named Hooke College in honor of Robert Hooke, the pioneer of mechanics (Hooke's Law) and the "Father of microscopy" (being the author of Micrographia, 1665) .

The visit was an exchange where I discussed "Microrheology of Formulated Consumer Products",  which shares a different perspective on microstructure since their expertise is largely focused on solid, dry particle analysis rather than wet mixtures (lotions, cosmetics, detergents).  Conversely, I was investigating how their services, training, and tools (i.e the McCrone Particle Atlas) could help P&G.

They are setting up a microscope museum and I was able to have a peak at a First Edition, 1665 printing of Micrographia (link is to the interactive online version) being stored in a vault until its case is ready. Don Brooks (CEO) graciously donned white gloves and opened it up for me...even unfolded the "flea" panel. Sweet. As a nerdy microscopist, this was exhilarating. Like looking into the lost ark :) ... but I didn't melt. 

The Group also shares a passion for creating Holiday Cards. Thanks to Christine Gorman (Admissions @ Hooke College) who tracked some of their historic cards down (see below).  I  will have to work microstructure / micrographs into my cards sometime, but not for 2012; this round I stuck to digital painting again.  Keep an eye our for it: this year's theme is faeries.    

All my cards can be found at S E Lindberg - Card Link.  I will again document the design process as I had for the 2011 cherub card.

Historic McCrone Group 

Season's Greetings Cards:

1973: Snowflakes?

Or... Polarized Light of Sodium Bicarbonate?










1988: Christmas Trees?

Or... Rheinburg Illumination of Ammonium Chloride in Water?







1993: Ornamented Pine Boughs?

Or... Fluorescein Crystals?

Ancient Ohio Trail - Real and Virtual Visits of Earthworks

Seip mound Ohio - For scale, see children

Explore Ancient Ohio

Ancient, Native American Indian architecture, made of earth, saturates the Ohio Valley.  Much of it was obliterated by settlers (admittedly, many of the earth mounds were covered in trees and were overlooked; others were removed without respect unfortunately).  That said, much remains. My family visits these sites ~annually; I and wanted to share some of the resources we use to plan day trips for: hiking, exploration, appreciation of past cultures, and inspiration...at places like:

• The stone henge-like Sunwatch Village near Dayton.
• The Great Serpent Mound
• Mound City near Chillicothe
• Fort Ancient.... and many more... 

Ancient Ohio Trail - Online Travel Guide (click!) 

Interactive Tour Guides Link

Many sites have small museums associated with them (Sun Watch and Fort Ancient have very nice ones).  Many others have been incorporated into rest stops (i.e. Seip Mound), parks, or are hidden in plain site within our cities.

Planning a trip was once complex, but now online mapping and conservation efforts have provided interactive tools.  The Ancient Ohio trail tool works great.  Follow the link and select a city or road you want to travel and it will mark out the earthworks and museums. Not sure which ones to go to?  Then check out the below virtual tours enabled in part by the CERHAS (The Center for the Electronic Reconstruction of Historical and Archaeological Sites (CERHAS), part of the University of Cincinnati's Design and Archictecture program.  These are beautiful, realistic tours that have been integrated into the museums.  Check portions of them from their YouTube.com channel:

Youtube Channel Ancient Ohio Trail (click!) 

Ohio Renaissance Fair 2012

Finally attended the Ohio Renaissance Festival (~45min north of Cincinnati), which has been a big hit for many years.  It lived up to its hype.  Tons of crafts, hecklers, music, entertainment…turkey legs being eaten.  And live jousting, of course! In fact, there is a show on the History Channel called "Full Metal Jousting" and many of the participants have roots to Monroe OH and appear here.  Very family friendly, yet still welcomed the die-hard fans who were compelled to dress in full-plate armor, pirate gear, or druid capes.

Their Entertainment Schedule was buried on their site (linked here) and is useful to plan a visit; the schedule is available at the front gate but it is nice to plan your route first. We were particularly interested the crafts and enjoyed watching one blacksmith and glassblower (images below).  Great place to have your fortune read, purchase armor, or buy a nice leather artifacts (leather bound tomes, capes,etc.).

You can even ride camels, horses, get trapped in a maze, throw knives, shoot bows, and even mud wrestle…I think.  See my daughter and wife below pretend to be the archer Katniss from the Hunger Games (image).  Highly recommended autumn fun.

The Godling Chronicles Book One: The Sword of Truth - Review by SE

The Godling Chronicles by Brian D. Anderson
S.E. Lindberg rates it : 4 of 5 stars

This review posts at the same time the author (Brian Anderson) tours the blog-o-sphere (this blog today). His topic: CHARACTER PERSONALITIES AND HOW THEY WERE CREATED.

“I still don’t understand,” said Gewey. “If I’m a god, then why do I seem so human?”

This young-adult novel presents the coming of age of Gewey Stedding. Young readers new to the fantasy genre will enjoy the exploits and growth of his character; these "human" readers may even question whether or not they have their own hidden potential (and awesome mentors ready to help them).

Anderson's emphasis on character development keeps this interesting. The pacing is appropriately fast for the intended audience, and readers will experience what has become standard fare in the genre (elves, lots of travelling and inns, spooky forests, etc.).

Veteran readers will shrug at the lack of originality, but the storytelling is done well. The foreshadowing of the Dark Knight’s power is effective though sparse; being biased toward liking horror elements, I was left hungry for more raising of the dead! Plenty of conflict keeps Gewey and his party busy, but most is not from the antagonist; with peril at every turn, the primary destination of their travel and the conflict gets obscured. Ultimately, the conflict remains “Gewey vs. Peril.” As a leading book in a series, it successfully gets the reader attached to Gewey and anxious to delve into the sequel.

CHARACTER PERSONALITIES AND HOW THEY WERE CREATED (BY BRIAN D. ANDERSON)

GUEST POST BY BRIAN D. ANDERSON

As a lifelong fan of the fantasy genre, it was important to me while writing The Godling Chronicles-BookOne: The Sword of Truth, to stay true to the style. However, I have noticed over the years, that far too many fantasy novels concentrated more on the fantastical aspects, and ignored proper character development. I did not want this to be reflected in my work, and endeavored to write a cast of characters that the reader could relate to, sympathize with, love, hate, but most of all believe. I wanted to create people that behaved and grew as they would in real life. Often this led the story into unexpected and exciting directions, and found that at times, the characters would over shadow the concept...but I didn't mind. It is what I had intended in the first place.

In any genre, when a person with a given personality is in a situation that forces him/her to be in the company of someone with an opposing personality, it can be assumed that there will be a natural conflict. However, as they navigate through trials and tribulations, feelings and personalities change; sometimes for the better, sometimes not. The reality of relationships should always be a part of an authors thinking when throwing different characters together; and in fantasy, there can be nothing more important than this. It doesn't matter who good the plot is, if the characters cannot drive it forward. Magic and power isn't enough; not if you want to captivate the reader.

Also, I wanted to be certain that the female characters were not your stereotypical damsel's in distress. I have always felt that weak female characters have been largely responsible for driving women away from reading fantasy. And who can blame them? It is uninteresting, unrealistic, and frankly, offensive. Luckily, I am not the only fantasy writer who has clued in to this, and it has caused a massive influx of female fantasy lovers. My own fan base is more than fifty percent female...a fact I would like to attribute to characters such and Kaylia, Celandine, Maybell, and even Salmitaya.

Over the past year inhabitants of The Godling Chronicles have become a vital part of me in ways that I had never anticipated. Each character is like a member of my family, and I love them dearly. It has been a tremendous honor to be able to share them with others, and it is my greatest hope that my work may inspire, in some small way, the same love of the genre that has been a part of my life for so long.

THE GODLING CHRONICLES (BOOK ONE): THE SWORD OF TRUTH

It has been five hundred years since the Great War between Elf and Human ripped the world apart, and the Dark Knight of Angrääl has stolen the Sword of Truth. With it, he has trapped the Gods in heaven. If left unchallenged he will kill the Gods and reshape the world into an unimaginable hell. The only hope for all of creation is a boy named Gewey Stedding, the only being born from the union of two Gods. Aided by Lee Starfinder, the son of Saraf, God of the Sea, and a mortal woman, he must discover the true nature of his power. However, this will not be easy. He is bound to the earth a mortal man, and in many ways is very human. When Kaylia, a young elf woman, joins their party, Gewey discovers that perils of the heart can be as treacherous as any sword. Gewey, Lee, Kaylia and other friends they meet on their journey, must battle the Dark Knight, find a way to heal the hatred between elf and man, and restore heaven itself.

AUTHOR BIO’S

Brian D. Anderson was born in 1971, and grew up in the small town of Spanish Fort, A. He attended Fairhope High, then later Springhill College where his love for fantasy grew into a lifelong obsession. His hobbies include chess, history, and spending time with his son.

Jonathan Anderson was born in March of 2003. His creative spirit became evident by the age of three when he told his first original story. In 2010 he came up with the concept for The Godling Chronicles that grew into an exciting collaboration between father and son. Jonathan enjoys sports, chess, music, games, and of course, telling stories.

“THE GODLING CHRONICLES (BOOK ONE)” BUY LINKS:

AMAZON: http://www.amazon.com/The-Godling-Chronicles-Sword-ebook/dp/B008WA4ZQA/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1344718323&sr=8-3&keywords=the+godling+chronicles

CREATESPACE: https://www.createspace.com/3960958

BRIAN D. ANDERSON’S LINKS:

Brian’s Author Page: http://www.greatmindsindependentpublishing.com/#/brian-anderson/4566993174

Brian’s Blog: http://briandanderson.blogspot.com/

Brian’s Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/brian.anderson.39750

Brian’s Twitter:  @GodlingChron

Brian’s Fan Page: http://www.facebook.com/TheGodlingChronicles

Solomon Kane - Movie Review

Solomon Kane Movie  - 5/5 stars!

Distribution nightmare: This was made for non-USA markets in 2009, not shared in the States until now, Aug 2012, via Video On Demand-iTunes. A complex distribution has it rentable via Amazon Instant Video (Watch Before it's in Theatres) for a limited time (perhaps only before it hits theaters?) ... and intermittently available for purchase/rental from iTunes. US Region 1 DVDs have not been released yet.  It is due it theaters in select US locations this Sept. 2012.

A new Kane: This Solomon Kane is not R.E. Howard’s hero (Howard being the originator of the character with his ~1930’s pulp fiction), but the movie remains true to the core elements that made the Solomon Kane stories so appealing for Howard fans: dark adventure, witches and witchcraft, puritan vs. devil conflict, cool creatures, and emotive imagery.  Rather than a puritan hunting Satan’s devil with immeasurable passion, Michael Bassett portrays Solomon Kane as a rebellious royal avoiding the devil claiming his sinful soul.  

Ultimately the conflict is still “Solomon Kane vs. Devil”, but rather than Howard’s paranoid crusader who was ostensibly “good” (motivated by his perception of God to confront evil), we get treated to an anti-hero who avoids being dragged to hell. This Kane tries to renounce violence, joins a ministry, and eventually gets paired with some Puritans—so he still wears the Puritan hat and fights devils.  Sparse guns exist, but this is best classified as Sword & Sorcery. Those disappointed in the 2011 movies of the same genre (Season of the Witch 2011 and Conan the Barbarian 2011) should be very excited to see horror-fantasy done professionally.  With the mix of adventure and spiritual horror, expect a blend of the infamous Exorcist (1973) with Jackson’s famous Lords of the Rings movie trilogy.   

As captured in an earlier post, Michael Bassett will be delivering the Silent Hill sequel!  

  

Reader Reviews for Lords of Dyscrasia - 2012

2011 reader reviews were captured in a previous post, while the Review Tab (link) attempts to share all reviews. This post consolidates reviews for 2012 (so far) being posted on many disparate websites. The highlights are lines that I considered being particularly helpful.

GOODREADS.COM REVIEWS

• DC Goodreads.com  Read in August, 2012,   Recommended for: lovers of gore, dark fantasy enthusiasts 

"Just be mindful to sacrifice your dark emotions whence you arrive. Your soul will pale. The hue of your memories will desaturate. You will be cleansed. Protected."

This is a story of a man who worked to free himself from a lineage of bondage. He starts with simply denying the Rite of Inheritance of his forefathers, and soon finds himself undead and clothed in the skin of his enemies. For this is the land of the Lords of Dyscrasia, a land where blood and ichor color the landscape.
Reanimation, specters and murderers are ever-present here, as are the traces of insectan elders and terrible harpies. They battle for the supremacy of their masters, fueled by contempt and guilty memories. They fill your senses with sanguine touches, and they haunt your soul with unforgiving murmurs. I would definitely say that this is unique. I haven't read a lot of this genre, of speculative/horror/gore, but I must say that I had quite an enjoyable ramble as I walked through a world where I could sink my feet in bloodied pools or rotten corpses.
While this is not a book for the sick of heart, it is a fairly great story told by quite a technical hand. You have to be rather good at context clues (but it wouldn't be a problem if you're paying enough attention), but the details are consistent, surprising, shocking. I had some problems with the storytelling (rather confusing at times), but I'm sure that some details may be bypassed while still enjoying the story. The unraveling of the plot itself, however, was pretty good. The little details were significant too, which surprised me as I went along.
(Oh, and just to add: I absolutely loved Dey's parts. I liked this young artist of a man, with his sketches and searches for pigment. Bonus points for Dey!) If you have no qualms reading dark fantasy (and feeling as if you've bathed in blood), pick up this book and enjoy. Come, the Lords of Dyscrasia are beckoning, calling you to claim your nightmares. 

• Sherri's review Aug 24, 12   If you like horror, fantasy and mythology, this is your book! I thoroughly enjoyed the storyline. It was a little slow – and at times a little confusing – toward the beginning, but the story picked up by the second chapter and delivered everything I wanted in a horror story: decapitation, disembowelment, cannibalism, castration (my personal favorite), rape, incest, mythological Gods, insects, birds…the list goes on. It was very disturbing, but that’s what I like. I want a story that shocks the conscious and this story delivered! Bravo, Mr. Lindberg, for a job well done! The story was unusual and your artwork was phenomenal. I look forward to reading your future novels. 

• Chris Einhaus's review Feb 24, 12   This book has some curious ideas and strong characterization. The main characters go through many trials and the will of their souls are challanged on every page. The loss that the main characters go through is heartbreakening and yet they carry on. The last 30 pages were harder to read through and I almost gave up but I skipped over a couple of pages so that I would not miss the ending. If Lindberg could shorten the book a little then the story would be tighter and feel less sometimes like a long journey but a great adventure.  This is also the first book I have read on the Nook Color.

Beauty in Ruins - Blog 

Review by Bob Milne, Friday, January 20, 2012

I don't generally read a lot of small-press or self-published books, but when one snags my attention, I'm more than willing to give it a shot. Lords of Dyscrasia is one of those books where everything fell into place - the cover caught my eye; the review blurb comparing it to "the works of Poe and Lovecraft" made me curious; and the concept of infected bloodlines, diseased souls, and necromancy assured it a spot on my shelf.

Stylistically, this was a very interesting read, with a mix of high fantasy, pulp adventure, and visceral horror that worked as well as I could have hoped. Elements of it did indeed remind me, at different times, of H.P. Lovecraft and Edgar Allen Poe, but I also detected the flavour of Robert E. Howard, and even some early Books of Blood era Clive Barker.  The storyline here is interesting, and the investment in the mythology is quite impressive. It's definitely one of the more unique concepts I've come across in a long while, taking a very Cthulhu-like approach to an otherwise standard fantasy trope of interracial breeding and the mingling of mortal & immortal races. The world-building doesn't quite live up to the mythology, but only because we don't get explore enough of it.

This is a very intense, very frantic, very driven read that leaps from scene to scene. The action and the tension is relentless, which has a definite appeal for some readers, but I felt it suffered somewhat because of it. I think one more pass at the story to build some narrative bridges between the scenes, and to pad out the intensity with some subtler moments of reflection could have really served the book well. It's not very often that I put down a book wishing it had been just a bit longer, but her I would have welcome some fluff to round things out.  That said, what's on the page works very well. Doctor Grave is a fantastic character, secretive and manipulative, but driven by an honest purpose. His ethereal assistant is definitely a nice touch, and the ways in which she is used outside the Doctor's environment were a very pleasant surprise. Lysis, unfortunately, came across as a bit one-dimensional for me. I would have like to see some more vulnerability in him, some lighter emotions, but I suspect that lack is due more to the unrelenting intensity of his quest than to any failings on the part of the book.

Other reviewers have said this is a very dark book, and they're right. This is pulp fantasy for the horror fan (not the other way around), and it is wonderfully grotesque. There's a very clinical detachment from much of the horror, which actually serves to elevate the monstrosities to a higher level. Like I said earlier, this reminds me of Books of Blood era Clive Barker on the page, or original Hellraiser era Clive Barker on the screen, and I delighted in that visceral element.  By no means a perfect book, but one that manages to offer something new, and which does an admirable job of bringing it all together. I look forward to seeing what Lindberg produces next, and would even be up for a reread were he to expand the text here . . . an author's preferred edition, if you will.

Amazon Reviews

Mixed feelings about this one, June 13, 2012; By K. Sozaeva "Obsessive bibliophile"
Disclosure: I received a free ebook copy of this text from the LibraryThing Members Giveaway program in exchange for an honest review.

Dyscrasia is a terrible disease in this book - one affecting mainly pregnant women who, if they survive their pregnancy, give birth to mutated creatures half-way between human and elder. The elders are either avian or insectile and they themselves are becoming extinct, leaving only a few, lesser members behind. The cult of people who worship the elders are called Picti, and Lord Endenken is the last of the Lysis clan, the only ones who can handle the power that is transmitted through their blood, only able to mate with those of the same blood or the dyscrasia takes them. It's quite a dilemma, and Endenken wants nothing to do with it - he wants to make his own way.

Lindberg has a real way with words - the language washes over the reader, completely immersing one within the world being created. But this is a very dark world that has been created - while many scenes occur in the daylight, everything I see in my mind is dark - there is no light anywhere. Also the scope is very large - there are scenes, of course, but overall it feels like everything is taking place at a distance. Analyzing my reaction, I think the reason I felt this way is that there are no "good" sides; everyone is really sort of evil, and there is no hero - or antihero - for which to root. Endenken is the main focus of the story, and he started with good intentions, but he's really not a nice man at all. Without someone to root for, I was left feeling sort of unmoored in the story. Dey was the only one I really felt any sympathy toward, and I much preferred Cypria and her quest for freedom over Haemarr.

All the art in this book - cover image and illustrations - are also done by the author. Amazing the amount of talent in one person! Also, amazing how much he overuses exclamation points... Every sentence that could possibly be emphatic ends with an exclamation point! I didn't notice it at first, but eventually I started to see that there was indeed exclamation point abuse occurring. There was also a lot of very awkward and ungrammatical phrasing throughout the book, although since this was an ARC, that might have been corrected before the final publication.

So, I have mixed feelings about this book. The language is lovely and it is beautifully written in many ways, but there is an excess of exclamation points and awkward/ungrammatical phrasing. There is no real hero/antihero for whom to cheer - or at least there were none for whom I felt any connection - and the scope is so large it is sometimes hard to keep track of it. I am sure there are some fans of high fantasy, especially dark fantasy, who will quite enjoy this tale, but it really wasn't for me.

LibraryThing Reader Reviews

(  )twlite | Apr 4, 2012 | 
I won this book from a Library Thing giveaway

This book is a Fantasy/Horror novel. It's very vivid and has many dark and graphic scenes, so it's not for everyone. That being said, this book is a very intense, but moves along fairly quickly. It will keep you turning pages all the way through.

There is a blood disease that is plaguing the elder of the Underworld. Doctor Grave tries to save them by placing the soul of dying Queen into the blood of Lord Ante Lysis. The soul then passes to his descendants until Doctor Grave can resurrect her again. Edenken Lysis journeys to the Underworld to try to get rid of the plague from his soul. He must fight his own battles though, his past and the Doctor's minions.

It's very fast past and very vivid. This book is very gory, but if you like that, it's a great read and you will highly enjoy it. I haven't read a book quite like this one before, so it was a surprise. The characters are great and well rounded. They aren't just good and bad but a mix of both that makes them much more interesting. I don't normally read this graffic of a novel. There are a lot of very evil subjects in the book that may be very difficult to read, so please by warned. This book wasn't my "type" of novel, but it was well written by the Author and could be a very good read for someone who doesn't mind the gore and some of the stuff they do. Although this book wasn't my kind of thing, I gave it 4 stars because the book was well written and may be to the next persons liking.