Storm is coming...

As the dark clouds are taking the rule of the blue sky from the flaming sun, and as the heavy raindrops hit the ground Alex J. Cavanaugh new book comes to the selfs of the American bookstores.

 

The "CassaStorm" official release date is 17th September, so be prepared!

 

According to the author the third book will be last book of the Cassan series. I'm a little bit sad about it, because I very enjoyed the first two book, and I have high hopes toward the CassaStorm also. I hope a I won't be disapointed!

 

I had a personal question to Alex, about the third book, and I received the answer for it.

 

Will you plan to write one or two (or more) short novell in the Cassa-Universe?

I’ve thought about it and could easily do spinoff stories with several characters. At the moment, I am finished with the Cassan world though and if I continue writing, I will move on to something new.

 

 

CassaStorm

By Alex J Cavanaugh

From the Amazon Best Selling Series!

A storm gathers across the galaxy…

Commanding the Cassan base on Tgren, Byron thought he’d put the days of battle behind him. As a galaxy-wide war encroaches upon the desert planet, Byron’s ideal life is threatened and he’s caught between the Tgrens and the Cassans.

After enemy ships attack the desert planet, Byron discovers another battle within his own family. The declaration of war between all ten races triggers nightmares in his son, threatening to destroy the boy’s mind.

Meanwhile the ancient alien ship is transmitting a code that might signal the end of all life in the galaxy. And the mysterious probe that almost destroyed Tgren twenty years ago could return. As his world begins to crumble, Byron suspects a connection. The storm is about to break, and Byron is caught in the middle…

“With a talent for worldbuilding and a compelling cast of characters, Alex J. Cavanaugh combines high powered space battles and the challenges of family dynamics to provide readers a space opera with heart.”
- Elizabeth S. Craig, author of the Southern Quilting and Myrtle Clover mysteries

“CassaStorM is a touching and mesmerizing space opera full of action and emotion with strong characters and a cosmic mystery.” – Edi’s Book Lighhouse

“Cavanaugh creates such an unforgettable world, and these characters will stay with you long after their story is over.”
- Cassie Mae, author of Friday Night Alibi and How to Date a Nerd

$16.95 USA, 6x9 Trade paperback, 268 pages, Dancing Lemur Press, L.L.C.

Science fiction/adventure and science fiction/space opera

Print ISBN 9781939844002 eBook ISBN 9781939844019

$4.99 EBook available in all formats (Update: As I see the ebook format is available from 8th September at Amazon.com for $8.88.)

Find CassaStorm:

Barnes and Noble

Amazon
Amazon Kindle

Goodreads

 

About the author
Alex J. Cavanaugh has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and works in web design and graphics. He is experienced in technical editing and worked with an adult literacy program for several years. A fan of all things science fiction, his interests range from books and movies to music and games. Online he is the Ninja Captain and founder of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group. The author of the Amazon bestsellers, CassaStar and CassaFire, he lives in the Carolinas with his wife.

Website

Twitter  

Goodreads

Comment on Alex’s blog this week for a chance to win a Cassa mug, mousepad, magnet, and swag!

The third one...

It was almost a week ago when HBO broadcasted the actual episode of Game of Thrones with the title of 'Second Sons'. It is a very funny coincidence, because my second son, Mátyás (Matthias) was arrived. 24th May 2013 if I wanted to be preceise.

 

Furtunatelly the childbearing was quick, and everyone is healty (including me).

You can find some pictures about the baby in my Picasa album.

Was it a lucky day?

3 years ago
It was a bright sunny day in that warm afternoon, when I arrived from the work to the greengrocer to meet my family. We bought many vegetables and fruits for ourselves then we got on the bus. Our children were very tired after the exhausting day, so when we got off the bus they were in my wife and my arms... with the bags and pouches.

 

After we had arrived at home realized something is missing. One of the golden ear-rings of my daughter, Annamária. When we left it and how? We were very anxiuous about it, because she had got it from her grand-grandmother and it wasn't a cheap bijou.

 

The very next morning I went to my work. I had a faint hope my daughter had lost her ear-ring at the bus stop where we had got off the bus. The pavement wasn't entirely covered by asphalt. It was fragmented, and a huge hole completely filled with dust and sand. I crouched to investigate the ground... when my eyes caughted a small twinkling. It was the lost ear-ring.

 

YesterdayThe heavy snow had started cover the roads, the treats and everything when I got into my cars at my workplace. I intented to pick up my family and drop them to my daughter ballet-course. I then I received a desperate phone call from my wife. She had lost her wedding ring. I said her to calm down and search a little bit more, but she didn't found it. The snowing hadn't stopped...

 

I met them a parking lot and drop my daughter to her ballet-course, and after it I went back the scene where my wife lost her wedding ring. It was also bus stop.

 

My wife has curently on diet and the weather was cold enought the ring could fall off her finger. It was bounced one on the pavement, then rolled into dirty grass covered by snow. When we arrived back to the scene I had a bad feeling about we never found my wife ring. We had searching about 10 minutes, I combed out the ground my times, my fingertips were freezed by the cold snow... when I finally found it. My wife was very happy and I too.

 

But day wasn't over yet. When we arrived home my wife found a half-soaked paper at the snow of the parking place. It was 10.000 Hungarian forint (~40USD).

 

(My fingertips are still aching when I'm typing this blog entry.)

Top Ten Movie Countdown Blogfest

This is Alex J. Cavanaugh's Top Ten Movie Coundown Blogfest. I'll cheat a little bit, because I won't name my favourite movies... instead of I'll write about my most mentionable movie experiences in the time being. The order isn't important.

Batman

As I remember Batman was the first movie I ever see in a cinema. Tell the truth the place were I saw Batman was rather a cultural center of a small town (near to my hometown) than a movie theatre, but it was a great experience. The whole place was totally full, you couldn't find a free seat. As I remember we received some Batman poster from the director of the place, which was photocopied from an movie magazine.

This movie was a great hit that time, and I enjoyed very much. I loved the Batmobile, the cool gadgets, Batman, (Kim Basinger as well) but I'm afraid from the Joker. I think this was my first geek-movie experience.

Puss in the boots

Watchin the Puss in the boots was the occasion, when I was a movie theatre with my daughter. And there were nobody at this room but us, my daughter and me. Annamária was only 4 that time, but she enjoyed it very much. After the film, at the credits she started dancing before the movie screen. It was funny!

Nascar 3D: The IMAX experience

My first 3D experience in the movie theatres was the Nascar 3D: The IMAX experience. It was an 40 minutes documentary on the big screen. I always love cars, the racing, however my all-time favourite is the Formula 1, but enjoyed very much this film. I can realy feel the whole Nascar environment, the pulse and the feeling of it. I'd like to rewatch it sometime.

The Matrix

The Matrix was the bigest suprise I ever meet in cinemas! I know almost nothing about this movie before watching it. I hadn't got internet connection at home, and I saw just one trailer (I didn't understand a single word about it). The plot was awsome, as the tricks as well. Unfortunately the sequels ruined the whole Matrix-universe.

Watchmen

As a geek I'm a big fan of comics. The Watchmen was a blind spot to me. When I first saw the character posters I think to this film as a parody of Batman. But after I had do some research and bought the the comic books as well. The unique viewpont and the strange characters made this movie the best comics-based movie I ever see! I can't tell what I loved most about it, maybe everything.

I remember the day when I saw the Watchmen. It was a cloudy spring night when the light rain knocking on the top of my rabbit-fur hat. I almost felt all pain of Rorschach as it walking under the rainy, clouded sky.

Avatar

The movie you mustn't miss in a 3D cinema! Unfortunately if you remove the 3D and CGI environment you got almost the same as the Pocahontas, not more. The Avatar wasn't a bad movie, however there were much better movies at that time, without 3D. It was also a big hit, but unfortunately it hasn't followed by the same quality 3D movies. If you know at least one, then named it!

Star Wars IV: A new hope

Funny, but the Star Wars IV: A new hope was one of my worst movie experience. It's not because of the film, or 'Greedo first-shoot' scene. The cinema was full of people, I just got ticket to 2nd row from the screen. The seat was very unconfortable... Moreover the couple behind me said I should stay low, because they didn't see anything because of me. I couldn't find the best position to watch the movie, strech my legs, staying low, so it was very unconfortable and unpleasant movie experience.

Saving private Ryan

We had my World War 2 movies on VHS format at home. The Saving private Ryan was a school-movie experience, when the whole secondary school visited the cinema. It was interesting to me the teachers let us watch this brutal movie. We just 14-18 years old that time. Saving private Ryan isn't my favourite WW2 film, but it has to watch too!

The Rock

Can you name a good film with Nicolas Cage recently? I don't think so, but the middle of the 90's he were in many good movie (Face/Off, Con Air, The Rock). Why I like The Rock movie so much? Not just because of Nic Cage, but Sean Connery, The Alcatraz, the Hummers. I think this was one of the last real action movie.

Valami Amerika

As you see from the previous items of my list, I primary watch action-based movie in the cinemas. I think watching a romantic/comedy in cinemas is throw money out of window. Of course there were some exceptions. One of the Valami Amerika (A kind of America). Unfortunately the Hungarian movie industry is poor, and the quality of films also. But this one was like a secret gem and gave my faith back to the Hungarian movie industry.

Here you can find the other participants of this blogfest.

International TableTop Day

I ran into the below linked video today.

As you all know I'm a big fan of boardgames. I love almost kind of boardgames which are more than roll a die and step as many as the die shows. Rolling dice are fun, but I love more exciment, when I have oportunity to control the events throught my deceisions. However you can find the luck element in every game.
According the announcement of this video, 30th March will be the International TableTop Day. Because it'll Saturday I almost sure I'll play some kind of boardgame with my wife and children.

I'm very excited about our future choice, what we will play that day.

Do you have favourite boardgames? Do you will play that day? And if your answer is yes, then what'll you choose?
 

If you're interested about it more, then you should visit the Official website of this event.

Status report after Christmas

Movie

My three years old son had never been in cinema, but last week we went to watch a movie, The Rise of the Guardians. He and my daughter enjoyed very much the show, however I had small problems with it.

1. The Rise of the Guardians is for Americans. Some of the 'heroes' are mostly unknown or uncommon (Jack Frost, Sandman, Tooth fairy) for the Hungarians. Santa Claus visit the children in 6th of December, not Chrismas Eve (then a baby Christ coming with the presents).

2. The story was in the usual frame/template. We got almost nothing new, we got the well-know storyline with supriseless twists.

In spite of these this movie was fun, not just the kids, but for me as well.

Film

During my long winter holiday (I have been home from 14th December... with the children.) I have time to watching films. I deceided to rewatch a great classic from my childhood, The Masters of the Universe. I had good memories when I first saw the adventures of He-Man. That was the day when I got my first Kinder Suprise! I remember how angry I was when the guests arrived and I had to cancel to watch that film...

The rewatch of The Masters of the Universe was shocking. The storyline, the costumes, the acting were ridiculus, but I still loved it. It was a little bit strange with complete dubbing, because first I watched one-man-dubbing on terrible monoton tune, with many missed or untranslated sentences.

I watched other films too (Mirror Mirror, The Dictator, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, etc) , but I don't want to blogging about them.

Series

I finished with the 4th season of Fringe, and I started to watch Farscape (with the children) and Lost (with my wife). Fortunatelly my wife and me both hate the Christmast movies on tv, so we quickly finished the first season of Lost.

Books

I won a short-story/novel collection with 10 writtings from a Hungarian publisher. It wasn't bad, but I wasn't fully satisfied with it. Somehow my favourite writtings from the 10 haven't won any awards, while the others yes.

I loved the story about the local superheroes in the Budapest's city steampunk version. The sour end of the novel - unfortunatelly - trully reflect the real Hungarian people.

Boardgames

Luckily the baby Christ was very generous this Christmas. We received a ton of games: Tales of the Arabian Nights, Arkham Horror.

And children got the followings:  Zooloretto, Piranhas, Buckaroo, Jack der Krähenschreck, Château Roquefort

Busy and exhausting December

November was simply busy, but December is exhausting also...

In Hungary the national (annual of the revolution) and religious (Christmas) holidays have a special national treatment. If a holiday day in Tuesday or Thursday than we get the Monday or Friday for "free day", so it expand a little bit the weekends. But it have a negative effect of it also: there are some Saturday when we have to work these mentioned "free days".

Let see the modified agenda of December:

1st December was a workday (for exchange of the free 31 December)

15th December was a workday (for exchange of the free 24 December)

Is this common in your country too?

I was at home these Saturdays but it didn't mean any relaxing, because I was so bold to ask out the little ones from nursery and kindergarden. Moreover 8th December we were at a Christmas party held by the company where I work.

6th December was the Santa Claus day, when we put candies, nuts, chocolate Santa Clauses and toys to the boots of kids. Then we started to buy gifts for Christmas and to my daughter birthday.

I left 8 days off to end of December which means I have been at home from 15th December. Yes... I was also too bold to ask out the children from nursery and kindergarden, so I have been at home alone with them. It's exhausting...

I had a plan to pay computer games, reading books, watching series and films, but some of these plans go to the trash.