Category: Blog

GeekingScience: Small Town Universe

Erin Penn Leave a comment

Imagine living in a town where wi-fi and cell phones are illegal; where every person in the town works together to create the smallest electronic footprint possible. Does it sound like a science-fiction horror story where people are hiding from aliens (like in David Weber’s Safehold series) or a governmental overreach restricting information transformation?

It’s neither. Green Bank, West Virginia is the National Radio Quiet Zone for the most sensitive radio telescope in the world. The entire valley is monitored for excess electronic interference. And through everyone’s due diligence, we just might hear aliens sending out signals, their television shows reaching across the galaxy.

A documentary from 2024 is available on the subject. You can find the trailer on YouTube (posted below).

Editing Rant: What did you see?

Erin Penn Leave a comment

Photo by Michael Dziedzic on Unsplash

Remember, readers have an easier time of visualizing what is there rather than what is removed.

In a recent edit:

As the youth spell turned back time, his hair changed to tar black and most wrinkles were removed from his face.

Recommended change:

…and a few wrinkles remained on his face.

Give your readers clear visualizations.

Don’t write: an object was missing from the desk.

Write: a cleared space in the dust indicated something was missing.

Your readers can’t see the missing object, but they can see the results of it missing.

Don’t write: John realized there was an invisible person in the room with him.

Write: John eyes said nothing was there, but his ears heard a shuffle.

(Okay, both the Write and Don’t Write suggested above have filtering problems…let’s try the invisibility unfiltered.)

Don’t write: The invisible lad tiptoed through the room.

Write: Little creaks crackled the wood flooring from the bedroom to where the cookies were cooling in the kitchen. John tracked the mischievous child with his ears. 

If the readers (and the point of view character) can’t see it, tell us what they either can see or provide details through other senses. Stop giving descriptions like someone handing out rural driving directions. Have you ever gotten directions like “Turn at the barn that burned down last year.”? This is useless. It’s useless in writing too. Direct your readers better. Write what the Readers CAN experience.

Do you see how this works?

Flash: The Tree Grew Tall

Erin Penn 1 Comment

Photo by Robert Bye on Unsplash

One of the Facebook groups I am on posts a weekly prompt – genre and words – to which one is to write a short opening paragraph as would fit into a Facebook comment area. This week’s challenge was: Genre – Either romance OR horror; “The tree grew tall.”

The tree had been watered by the blood of patriots long ago. Its roots were entangled with buckshot and cannon balls. Fifty years later, when its limbs had regrown strong and round, people decorated it with Strange Fruit. The ropes remained long after the bones had fallen into the leaf mulch below. Yesterday, a family had hid in among its ground cover ferns and blackberries only to be pulled out by immigration agents and beaten before being taken away. The tree had had enough.

(Words 84; first published 7/10/2026)

Book Review: Legends & Lattes

Erin Penn 1 Comment

Amazon Cover

Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree

BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON

After a lifetime of bounties and bloodshed, Viv is hanging up her sword for the last time.

The battle-weary orc aims to start fresh, opening the first ever coffee shop in the city of Thune. But old and new rivals stand in the way of success ― not to mention the fact that no one has the faintest idea what coffee actually is.

If Viv wants to put the blade behind her and make her plans a reality, she won’t be able to go it alone.

But the true rewards of the uncharted path are the travelers you meet along the way. And whether drawn together by ancient magic, flaky pastry, or a freshly brewed cup, they may become partners, family, and something deeper than she ever could have dreamed.

“Take a break from epic battles and saving the world. Legends & Lattes is a low-stakes fantasy that delivers exactly what’s advertised: a wholesome, cozy novel that feels like a warm hug. This is my new comfort read.”―Genevieve Gornichec, author of The Witch’s Heart

 

MY REVIEW

After years of High Fantasy, I wasn’t sure what to expect of a cozy fantasy. Could orcs and thieves, magicians and dire-cats produce the same feeling as a cozy mystery? The want to curl into a cup of tea and a blanket and read about a low stakes situation and just vibe with the characters?

Yes, you can do exactly that with Legends and Lattes, although you might want a cup of coffee instead of tea.

Instead of saving the world from an apocalypse, a country from an invading army, or the universe from an eldritch horror incursion, we have a retiring orc adventurer setting up a coffee shop, making permanent friends and business connections, aligning commodity purchases, and figuring out a menu.

For spicy rating … it is as sweet as the cinnamon rolls that the coffee shop serves with a single kiss. (Though the one-bed trope does come into play.)

Be ready for a soft kitty with danger mitts, a chess cryptic player, and a bard from a mason background.

Checked out through a local library; read for a book club.

[BONUS POINTS – Romantic interest (1) always initiated by employee; (2) didn’t kiss until AFTER becoming co-owners. This – THIS! – is how you do employer-employee romances without power disparity.]