Archive for the ‘Other Stuff’ Category
Join Me on Facebook!
Posted by: Michael R. Hicks in Other Stuff on February 17th, 2010
One of my favorite places to hang out on the web is Facebook. I’ve met a lot of really neat people there from around the world: folks who’ve read my books, other writers, fans of Beachbody’s fitness programs like P90X and ChaLEAN Extreme, book and Amazon Kindle lovers, and many, many more. I’ve learned a lot and made some good friends: it’s been, and continues to be, a great experience.
Recently, it dawned on me that I was pushing fast toward the limit of friends you can have on your personal page: 5,000 people! Holy cow! It sort of came as a shock, because I remember very vividly when I was “young” on Facebook and only had a few friends, seeing someone who had around 3,000 friends and wondering how the heck he did that – it seemed like such an unbelievable number.
Now, are all those people really my close friends? Of course not, at least not in the conventional sense. They’re more like contacts or connections from which friendships or otherwise beneficial relationships can spring up.
But that brings me to the real point of this post: since Facebook won’t allow me any more than 5,000 contacts, I’ve set up a page (technically a “fan page”) that will support more contacts with people like yourself. So come and join me on Facebook and let’s see what kind of relationship we can build together!
Snowpocalypse 2010: Round 1
Posted by: Michael R. Hicks in Other Stuff on February 9th, 2010
Okay, I’ve had enough snow already. Really. Snowpocalypse 2010 Round 1 snow storm was enough: we got a full two feet, and maybe a bit more. I know that’s nothing compared to the folks up in the Great White North, but here in Maryland we panic at the sight of the first snowflake (and hey, I’m from Phoenix Arizona, where we only see pictures of snow and panic).
The crowning glory of Round 1 was that we lost power for 32 hours. I bought a diesel backup generator a couple years ago after we lost power for a couple days after a hurricane, and thought, “Hey, we’ve got this in the bag!” Half an hour of cursing and cranking later, the generator sputtered into life, then died after about thirty seconds. Is that typical, or what? Needless to say, as soon as the snow is cleared enough for people to make their way out again, I’m having a local backup power company come and install a natural gas-fed standby generator that takes care of itself and comes on any time the power goes out. I’m not going to mess around with that again!
Fortunately, the stores weren’t too bad last night when we made our resupply run in anticipation of Snowpocalyps 2010 Round 2, which is supposed to dump another ten to twenty inches of chilly white stuff on us. The good news is that work was closed again, but we’re not looking forward to shoveling the driveway out again: the piles of snow we made after Round 1 were as tall as my wife, Jan!
In the meantime, I’ll try to get more revisions done on Legend of the Sword, and get in a P90X Core Synergistics workout to get loosened up for the shovel-fest!
Check Out This Poll on KindleBoards.com
Posted by: Michael R. Hicks in Other Stuff on January 16th, 2009
Okay, you just never know what you’re going to find on KindleBoards.com. As I mentioned earlier, the sub-board for the In Her Name Book Klub is now open, and our crafty moderator, Betsy The Quilter, set up a poll that cracked me up – come check it out!
In Her Name Book Klub Thread Now Open on KindleBoards.com
Posted by: Michael R. Hicks in Other Stuff on January 16th, 2009
Holy cow – there are only FIFTEEN days left as I write this until the In Her Name KindleBoards.com Book Klub starts, and one of the moderators has set up the discussion sub-forum!
I have no idea how much of a turnout we’ll have, but I’m hoping for a decent-sized group. Regardless of size (size doesn’t matter! LOL!), it’ll be a lot of fun, and I’m really looking forward to hearing what folks think about the book as they read through and discuss it.
As an added bit of fun, I decided that we’ll have a drawing at the end of the club for an In Her Name T-shirt from Zazzle.com (I still have to finalize the designs).
So, if you haven’t already, check out In Her Name! Remember, the sample for your Kindle or Mobipocket eBook is free, and I’ve got a free PDF sample for folks who’d like to read along in print format!
In Her Name Now on Scifipedia.scifi.com
Posted by: Michael R. Hicks in Other Stuff on January 16th, 2009
I wanted to thank Bufo Calvin for helping to promote In Her Name by getting information about the book posted on Scifipedia, Scifi.com’s official wiki. Bufo has posted a ton of information on Scifipedia, and that was really cool of him to add In Her Name.
FYI, he has a Kindle book out entitled Free Books for Your Kindle
Hrithik Roshan: My Candidate to Play In Her Name’s Hero
Posted by: Michael R. Hicks in Other Stuff on January 13th, 2009
Okay, most (all?) writers probably fantasize at one time or another about their work being taken to the big screen. Today I had that daydream and played the “who should star in the movie” game.
I didn’t make any headway on who would be the female lead to play Esah-Zhurah, but the guy who popped into my head to play Reza (the hero of the story) was Hrithik Roshan, one of Bollywood’s shining stars.
Why would I think of someone like Hrithik over the bevy of traditional American stars, you ask? Well, in the book, Reza isn’t a character cast from the stereotypical well-to-do American ‘burb. He was born on New Constantinople, a planet whose population – as the name suggests – was largely descended from the Mediterranean and trans-Asian regions.
While Hrithik Roshan isn’t exactly from the Med (he was born in Mumbai, India), he just has the look about him that I’d imagined for Reza long before Hrithik took to the screen. He’d also win the popular vote for women everywhere! On top of that, in his latest movie, Jodhaa Akbar
I’m telling you, it was just meant to be! I’m expecting Hrithik’s agent to call any time now… 
And hey, if you’d like to see for yourself if he wouldn’t be great for this role, check out the first chapters of In Her Name! And if you’d like to buy it, a list of US and overseas retailers (including India!) is available on the main page for the book. Enjoy!
