The Friday 56 (142) & Book Beginnings: Putting the Science in Fiction edited by Dan Koboldt

The Friday 56 is a weekly meme hosted by Freda's Voice where every Friday you pick a book and turn to page 56 or 56%, and select a sentence or a few, as long as it's not a spoiler. For the full rules, visit the the page HERE

Book Beginnings is a weekly meme hosted by Rose City Reader that asks you to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you're reading.

Synopsis from Goodreads...

Science and technology have starring roles in a wide range of genres--science fiction, fantasy, thriller, mystery, and more. Unfortunately, many depictions of technical subjects in literature, film, and television are pure fiction. A basic understanding of biology, physics, engineering, and medicine will help you create more realistic stories that satisfy discerning readers. This book brings together scientists, physicians, engineers, and other experts to help you: Understand the basic principles of science, technology, and medicine that are frequently featured in fiction. Avoid common pitfalls and misconceptions to ensure technical accuracy. Write realistic and compelling scientific elements that will captivate readers. Brainstorm and develop new science- and technology-based story ideas. Whether writing about mutant monsters, rogue viruses, giant spaceships, or even murders and espionage, Putting the Science in Fiction will have something to help every writer craft better fiction.Putting the Science in Fiction collects articles from "Science in Sci-fi, Fact in Fantasy," Dan Koboldt's popular blog series for authors and fans of speculative fiction (dankoboldt.com/science-in-scifi). Each article discusses an element of sci-fi or fantasy with an expert in that field. Scientists, engineers, medical professionals, and others share their insights in order to debunk the myths, correct the misconceptions, and offer advice on getting the details right....

Beginning: "Stories require a delicate balance between too much and too little world building. Authors must always know more about their fictional setting than the reader, but the story needs only the information necessary to make the reader believe it is real."

56: "Jurassic Park pushed the limits of the fledgling molecular biology knowledge base in the late 1980s.

Comments: I received this book from Bookish First for review. I like this book a lot. My beginning comes from How to ask an Expert by Eric Primm, and my 56 is from The Science of Jurassic Park by Mike Hays on page 49. 

What are you reading this week?

The Spider Bride...

It’s finally October 31st. So, to start off this post I just have to say Happy Halloween! I actually planned ahead for once, and as such, had this post in mind as far back as the middle of September. And today, I’m finally going to talk about the second October related watercolor project I tackled: the Spider Bride. This is the other painting that I mentioned briefly on my Watercolor post for the witch redo. And I’m so excited to finally talk about this one. There’s no history behind this piece, and it came about kind of spontaneously.

The Process...

Around the time I was working on the witch painting, I did a quick sketch of another idea that I got out of the blue. I didn’t put too much effort into it, because at the time, I was just trying to parse out a general idea of it before I forgot. And ultimately, it didn’t fit with what I was trying to do with the Witch. So the idea landed on a different page, and that’s where it stayed until I decided that I also wanted to paint it. The Spider Bride is one of those sketches that happened to be good to go without too many alterations from the original version. Off to the side of the initial sketch, I played around with the option of doing a gothic cathedral inspired background. However, I ultimately abandoned that idea early on, because I didn’t like how it even appeared alongside the initial sketch for the Spider Bride.
When I mentioned on the Witch post that the color combinations for both paintings complimented each other, I honestly wasn’t kidding. I don’t know why, but I just didn’t go very dark with my color scheme. And the same thing applies for the Spider Bride. Once I started painting, my original warm/dark tones were tossed out the window in favor of the cooler tones I’m currently a fan of.

The final painting…

A couple of close ups...

The Witch and the Spider Bride side by side. From this view, it’s easier to see how the colors complement each other...

So, that’s about it for today. As for my next art related post, I’m planning to share some of the pages from my current sketchbook; although, I don’t know when that’ll appear on the blog—because I want to amass more pages so it’s not a post with one or two things. Anyway, I hope everyone has a great Halloween!

 Supply List...

Sakura Koi Watercolors

Prismacolor Premier Colored Pencils

Artist Loft Level 2 140lb watercolor paper

Gelly Roll white gel pen

Music Monday (62) Halloween Edition: Bobby (Boris) Pickett & Flyleaf

   Rules:

• Music Monday is a weekly meme hosted by Lauren Stoolfire at Always Me that asks you to share one or two songs that you've recently enjoyed. For the rules, visit the page HERE 

Breana: It’s time for the Halloween edition of Music Monday! So my first pick for today is Monster Mash by Bobby (Boris) Pickett. It's a classic. And I had to mention it before October was over.…

My second pick is What’s This performed by Flyleaf for the Nightmare Revisited album. I’ll always love the original soundtrack for the Nightmare Before Christmas, but the Revisited side is pretty cool too. I love Flyleaf’s cover of What's This. Of course, the lyrics are the same, but the way the sound was rearranged to suit Flyleaf’s style is awesome….

What are you listening to this week?

The Friday 56 (141) & Book Beginnings: Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker

The Friday 56 is a weekly meme hosted by Freda's Voice where every Friday you pick a book and turn to page 56 or 56%, and select a sentence or a few, as long as it's not a spoiler. For the full rules, visit the the page HERE

Book Beginnings is a weekly meme hosted by Rose City Reader that asks you to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you're reading.

Synopsis from Goodreads...

Sleep is one of the most important but least understood aspects of our life, wellness, and longevity. Until very recently, science had no answer to the question of why we sleep, or what good it served, or why we suffer such devastating health consequences when we don't sleep. Compared to the other basic drives in life—eating, drinking, and reproducing—the purpose of sleep remained elusive. An explosion of scientific discoveries in the last twenty years has shed new light on this fundamental aspect of our lives. Now, preeminent neuroscientist and sleep expert Matthew Walker gives us a new understanding of the vital importance of sleep and dreaming. Within the brain, sleep enriches our ability to learn, memorize, and make logical decisions. It recalibrates our emotions, restocks our immune system, fine-tunes our metabolism, and regulates our appetite. Dreaming mollifies painful memories and creates a virtual reality space in which the brain melds past and present knowledge to inspire creativity. Walker answers important questions about sleep: how do caffeine and alcohol affect sleep? What really happens during REM sleep? Why do our sleep patterns change across a lifetime? How do common sleep aids affect us and can they do long-term damage? Charting cutting-edge scientific breakthroughs, and synthesizing decades of research and clinical practice, Walker explains how we can harness sleep to improve learning, mood, and energy levels; regulate hormones; prevent cancer, Alzheimer’s, and diabetes; slow the effects of aging; increase longevity; enhance the education and lifespan of our children, and boost the efficiency, success, and productivity of our businesses. Clear-eyed, fascinating, and accessible, Why We Sleepis a crucial and illuminating book

Beginning: "Do you think you got enough sleep this past week? Can you recall the last time you woke up without an alarm clock feeling refreshed, not needing caffeine? If the answer to either of these questions is "no," you are not alone."

56: "When did life start sleeping?"

Comments: Why We Sleep is one of the books I recently checked out from the library. I'm not done reading it yet, but so far, it's a thoroughly fascinating look at some of the science behind, well, sleep. 

What are you reading this week?

ARC Review: The Proposal by Jasmine Guillory

Title: The Proposal
Series: n/a
Author: Jasmine Guillory
Source/Format: First to Read; eARC
More Details: Contemporary; Romance
Publisher/Publication Date: Berkley Books; October 30, 2018
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Synopsis from Goodreads...

The author of The Wedding Date serves up a novel about what happens when a public proposal doesn't turn into a happy ending, thanks to a woman who knows exactly how to make one on her own. When someone asks you to spend your life with him, it shouldn't come as a surprise--or happen in front of 45,000 people....

When freelance writer Nikole Paterson goes to a Dodgers game with her actor boyfriend, his man bun, and his bros, the last thing she expects is a scoreboard proposal. Saying no isn't the hard part--they've only been dating for five months, and he can't even spell her name correctly. The hard part is having to face a stadium full of disappointed fans...

At the game with his sister, Carlos Ibarra comes to Nik's rescue and rushes her away from a camera crew. He's even there for her when the video goes viral and Nik's social media blows up--in a bad way. Nik knows that in the wilds of LA, a handsome doctor like Carlos can't be looking for anything serious, so she embarks on an epic rebound with him, filled with food, fun, and fantastic sex. But when their glorified hookups start breaking the rules, one of them has to be smart enough to put on the brakes...

The Proposal by Jasmine Guillory is another cute romance with an excellent cast of diverse characters, and a heroine who finds herself on the wrong side of a story gone viral. And while a public proposal can seem like a sweet idea, The Proposal showed all the ways it could go wrong. Right off the bat—no pun intended—the inciting incident provided the perfect foundation for the rest of the story by adding some early conflict to the plot. And I liked it.

Carlos was one of my favorite characters from The Wedding Date. However, he was only in a supporting role as the best friend of Drew. Here, he’s the main guy, and Guillory fleshed-out his character by adding his backstory and showing more of his family—like his sister, mother, and cousin. I liked Carlos’s family. They were wonderful characters.

Nik was also interesting. She was sassy at times, smart, and had a number of great friends who were willing to back her up—whether that was a much needed cupcake, relationship advice, dinner, or simply getting together to talk things over.

The Proposal was more of a slow burn kind of romance. The characters spent a lot of talking and hanging out together. This was a nice touch to the story because it introduced the main characters of The Proposal to me, as the reader, and to each other on page without slowing down the story. The beginning was excellent. However, some of descriptions and dialogue seemed a little repetitive at times. That being said, I didn’t have the same problem with the second half of the story, and since this was an ARC, it may be changed in the final version of the book.

All-in-all, The Proposal was a pretty great read. And I’m looking forward to whatever Guillory writes next....

About the author...

Jasmine Guillory is a graduate of Wellesley College and Stanford Law School. She is a Bay Area native who has towering stacks of books in her living room, a cake recipe for every occasion, and upwards of 50 lipsticks....

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Disclaimer: This copy of the book was provided by First to Read for this review, thank you!