Staffan Fenander in Sweden does cover song of ''AMAZING RACE'', new lyrics from the old soulful meloody

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10150402316399615#!/profile.php?id=736144614


https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10150402316399615#!/photo.php?v=10150402316399615&set=vb.736144614&type=2&theater

Staffan notes on his Facebook page:

''Återigen gamla Amazing Grace men nu i en svensk/amerikansk tolkning: texten skriven av min gamle vän Danny Bloom , som jag träffade på spanska trappan i Rom 1971. Bifogar texten om människorasen...Amazing race! A new version of the old hymn , now ''Amazing Race'', lyrics by my old friend Danny Bloom, writer, poet, singer and expat eccentric....

Danny adds:

"My Swedish friend from our Bob Dylan subway busking days in Italy 1969 has done a wonderful NEW rendition of my new lyrics updating the old AMAZING GRACE song with same soulful melody but with new words and Staffan's wonderful wonderful voice and guitar. A new classic is born. Bravo, SF!"

The Unlikely Event

by Avi Steinberg

Because I do not want to die in the brawny arms of an industrial-kitchen-fixtures salesman from Tulsa—at least, not one I’ve only just met—I don’t much care for airline travel. During a recent trip from Salt Lake City, my Boeing 757 began to lurch and heave and make dreadful noises. At times we seemed to be in free fall. I caught the look on our veteran flight attendant’s face as she rushed by: it was genuine fear. During one particularly terrifying plunge, I felt the brawny fingers of that kitchen-fixtures salesman inching toward me, tugging at my sleeve. I needed an escape. I reached into the seat pocket in front of me.

At 33,000 feet, and falling, we are presented with roughly the same options as on earth. First, we get the in-flight magazine’s glossy parade of petit bourgeois distraction. But, face it, when your plane is going down, what good is a recipe for a quick and easy hake with hazelnuts and capers? For those seeking something more directly relevant, there’s the Sartre-esque barf bag. But for those of us who occupy that metaphysical middle ground between the in-flight magazine and the barf bag, there’s the airline safety card.


As everyone knows, the story contained in this pamphlet has little to do with anything resembling the truth. If shit goes down, if that horrifying alarm is sounded, will your fellow passengers really calmly place oxygen masks over their faces? Will that crazy lady sitting next to you inflate her life jacket in a quiet and orderly fashion? (“Put it on as you would a waistcoat,” a 1930s British Imperial Airways card advises its clientele.) In the history of aviation, has any plane ditched over the north Atlantic, leaving its passengers floating in the mountainous, frigid waves of the open ocean with serene expressions on their faces? Airline safety cards aren’t instructional guides, they are works of fantastic imagination.

This isn’t meant to denigrate the safety card. On the contrary, if ever there were an occasion for bold revisions of reality, surely the art of airline crisis is it. The form itself abhors strict realism. A 1992 cross-cultural study conducted at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University determined that people prefer graphic illustrations instead of photography on airline safety cards. Photos, the study claimed, are inevitably full of distracting detail, or “visual noise.” Hence the safety-card aesthetic: spare, noiseless projections that maintain a zenlike neutrality to the chaos and horror of the actual event. It comes as no surprise that these drawings are always a centimeter away from completely missing the point. According to the 1992 study, European passengers are more apt to correctly identify an image of a high-heeled shoe, whereas Americans, a more homely bunch, are more apt likely to classify the high-heel simply as “a shoe”—the consequences of this misidentification can be tragic. In plane crashes and minimalist art, every detail matters.

The best airline-safety-card artists know how to amplify these details without creating too much noise. They are, after all, artists. They work within and bend the conventions of their form by playing with allusions to earlier work. Take, for example, a current US Airways safety card that portrays the conventional water flotation scene. We see a beautiful woman, with lush red hair, floating effortlessly, gazing ahead in an attitude of easeful melancholy. The airline artist has recruited Dante Rossetti’s 1877 Mary Magdalene, with perhaps an ironic nod to Botticelli’s Venus, as the heroine of our worst-case scenario. Thus the “fallen woman” motif is reimagined in the most urgent terms: this airline Magdalene is a woman who has quite literally fallen. And this is where we find her, floating in limbo, clutching a lily-white life preserver to her breast (instead of a vase, as in the 1877 portrait). Like Rossetti’s romantic Pre-Raphaelite Magdalene, this woman’s lowly state serves only to magnify her elemental beauty. Here she is, Our Lady of the Plane Crash. “I will make you fishers of men,” says the Christ. “We will rescue you in any corner of the globe,” says a Pan Am safety card. The fallen woman will not remain cast away forever—and, if we follow her lead, the artist assures us, neither will we. It is a pretty vision of earthly salvation.



The artist behind a current AeroMexico safety card is not convinced. In an echo of The Son of Man, the 1964 painting by Belgian Surrealist René Magritte, the AeroMexico man is rendered in realistic detail—from rolled up sleeves to tousled hair—all of which is, however, a set up for the darkly comic punch line: the man has no face. This bit of surrealistic surgery, more than the yellow life preserver, is what we remember. It is plain to us that this creepily inanimate son of man is, in struggling to preserve his life, in some sense already dead.


Another current airline-safety card riffs on Hopper’s 1942 painting, Nighthawks, and imagines the conventional post-crash scene as a variation on the loneliness-within-a-group motif:



Back in the fifties, safety-card artists worked with a lighter touch. A Qantas Empire Airways safety card, drawn in the wink-and-grin style of a men’s magazine cartoon, depicts a sporting fellow leaning over the side of a lifeboat, flirting with a long, lean, blonde mermaid, much to the annoyance of his wife. Other life-raft images from the period feature a cast of dapper country clubbers reclining, puffing on pipes, scanning menus as smirking fish and seagulls breeze by. A Lufthansa card shows a lifeboat packed full of delicious foods, wine, and a fishing rod.

Is it possible that in the golden age of aviation even the crashes were glamorous? What are we to make of the safety card that says, “Life vests are fashionable and quite handsomely tailored.” Certainly something has been lost. A Pan Am Boeing B-377 card gives escape directions with reference to “the ladies’ powder room,” “the coat rack,” “spiral staircase,” and “cocktail lounge.” And if we were wondering about the pilot, well, rest assured, he’s a stud. “Remember,” the card tells passengers, “that while the captain may have played the genial host under normal conditions, his authority is absolute.” In this sexy environment, it somehow isn’t surprising that the safety card tells passengers, who find their plane going down, to “loosen your tie ... but keep all your clothes on.”

It’s easy to get nostalgic for an era of flight before we were forced to stand barefoot and humbled before the gropings of uniformed agents, long before the time when our fellow passengers occasionally tried to kill us. But it turns out that the fifties and sixties, safety-card whimsy was designed to lighten the widespread fears of that era, of a population still new to flight.

For all the old cards may have had in terms of sex appeal, they often lacked in tact. They were textually expansive; often, they said too much. In order to justify the need for oxygen masks, one safety card helpfully noted that modern aircraft fly at “very high altitudes.” A Canadair card from the early seventies boasted that its lifeboats were “seaworthy, with great buoyancy.” This was in contrast to the plane itself which would, the card promised, sink before your eyes. An old United card offers this uniquely discomfiting warning: “move out of this plane fast. There is a fire-danger any time a landing is other than normal—particularly when the airplane structure is damaged.” No mention is made about staying calm. An Australian card confesses that the only means of escape involves kicking the window exit open with all of your might. VIASA, Venezuela’s former national airline, urges people not to be anxious when the alarm is sounded. It asks passengers to “keep your muscles taut to absorb the sudden impact.” Another card urges people to grab their warmest clothes before they jump into the sea. An Air France card directs passengers to the closest axe—no further directions are given.

But even in these cards there are some moments of genuine pathos. Like the best of the contemporary cards, which have almost entirely done away with text, the effect was achieved through a drawing. A late sixties Gulf Air card portrays a well-tailored Marvel Comics–style man, stalwart and square jawed, prepared to meet his fate with a ducklike dignity.

But there is something to this art form beyond the drawings or texts. The last page of many safety cards is blank, which would be unremarkable had they not also included this caption: This Panel Intentionally Left Blank. Thus ends the artifice. Here, on this page, there are no melancholic passengers or dreamboat captains, no stern warnings, only a blank screen upon which you and I may project … what, exactly? What are we to make of this combination of blankness and intent? Seasick and weary, Melville’s Ishmael knew all about it. Whiteness, he said, “strikes more of panic to the soul than the redness which affrights in blood.”

Is it by its indefiniteness that it shadows forth the heartless voids and immensities of the universe, and thus stabs us from behind with the thought of annihilation, when beholding the white depths of the Milky Way? Or is it that whiteness is not so much a color as the visible absence of color, and at the same time the concrete of all colors; is it for these reasons that there is such a dumb blankness, full of meaning, in a wide landscape of snows—a colorless all-color of atheism from which we shrink?

This horrible dumb blankness, full of meaning, this colorless all-color of atheism, this drab charnel house within our hearts, yea, this universal white shroud, is the airline safety card’s intentionally blank page. It pictures not an unlikely event but the only one about which there is absolute certainty.

Avi Steinberg is the author of Running the Books, a memoir of his adventures as a prison librarian, recently out in paperback.

AMAZING RACE - a slow gospel country song sung by J. Gale Kilgore in Texas

=================================lyrics==================

Amazing race, how cool you are
A long-lived family tree.
We are one on Earth unbound
Once born, we breathe, we see.


O human race there's naught to fear.
life's one sweet adventure true
How precious is each day we live
You and you and you!

Though many dangers, toils and snares
Lurk behind the doors of fear
We are one amazing race
and friends are always near.


Day by day and year by year
We need to stand up tall
And fight injustice wherever it lies.
United, one and all

But when our flesh and hearts do fail,
And mortal life does end,
The human race goes on and on
and memories last, my friend.

Well, we've been here ten million years
And we'lll last till the end of time.
So wipe away those human tears
Be strong, be good, be kind.

Humans Won't Survive on Half of Earth by 2500? Danny Bloom: It's True! Prepare for the worst!

Average global temperatures, that have been rising for a century already, due to anthropogenic climate change, won’t suddenly stop rising in 2100, say Australian and US scientists in a study just published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Up to half of the planet would become uninhabitable by the 2300s with an average global temperature rise of 21.6 degrees Fahrenheit. Survivors of climate chaos will live in 300 polar cities scattered around the unfrozen Arctic shores.

see
http://pcillu101.blogspot.com/

This would make much larger regions into uninhabitable deserts than now. Humans would not be able to adapt or survive in such conditions.

“If this happens, our current worries about sea level rise, occasional heat waves and bushfires, biodiversity loss and agricultural difficulties will pale into insignificance beside a major threat – as much as half the currently inhabited globe may simply become too hot for people to live there,” says an observer.

Just 500 short years from now – after a relatively brief period of enjoyment of the planet compared with the dinosaurs – we could see temperatures that humans can no longer survive.





The scientists give the 21.6 degrees Fahrenheit rise a 50/50 chance. We might be able keep it to a merely disastrous 12.6 degrees global average by 2300. So far we have seen only a few degrees rise in global average temperatures. (Global average temperatures comprise the sum of increases and decreases in different regions.)

That climate change won’t stop happening in 2100 is not news. But this study manages to spell out clearly enough what that will mean – and manages to get it written up at at least one major news outlet in the developed world – The Telegraph.

As Treehugger points out, it is only 500 years since the Enlightenment in Europe that propelled reason and empirical evidence to the forefront, allowing the development of all science.

Science made possible the development and exploitation of dirty energy and science uncovered the effects of greenhouse gases and science developed the clean energy that could replace dirty energy safely.

Even before the Enlightenment, we survived at least 200,000 years as a species with brains: Homo Sapiens.

Arctic to be the Center of a New World by 2300 and Home to 300 ''Polar Cities'' for Desperate Survivors of Climate Chaos in Lower 48 and Europe

Arctic to be the Center of a New World by 2300?Danny Bloom poses this question:

If climate change continues along the business-as-usual path, the 24th Century’s ''brave new world'' will be in some ways more like the world of Ancient Greece – with what’s left of the world’s inhabitants living in desperate and isolated polar cities in the northern regions and
scattered along the coast of a single sea.

For the ancient Greeks, it was the Mediterranean Sea. For those of our descendants that survive in polar cities, it will be what is now the Arctic circle.

LINK:
http://pcillu101.blogspot.com/



The countries that will remain habitable for polar cities for survivors of climate chaos after 300 years of climate change are centered on the now nearly empty lands around the Arctic Circle: clockwise this shows Siberia, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Greenland, Canada, Alaska.

That is the conclusion of a paper that studied how global warming will affect the northern areas of Europe as two-thirds of the world becomes uninhabitable by 2300, that finds that the effects of climate change will redraw the map of the main influence centers of civilization. Eaarth – as Bill McKibben denotes our climate altered future will center on an open sea over what is now the Arctic. It is also the conclusion that I have reached with my work at the Polar Cities Research Institute (GOOGLE).



In The North: The New European Frontier with Global Warming, Trausti Valsson of the University of Iceland Faculty of Engineering argues for the inclusion of ”Iceland, Norway and Russia (because of Siberia) in the European Union, because the importance of these areas in the future, economically, militarily and as a future living space for the European community.” None of the three nations are currently members of the EU.

Valsson’s argument is that, combined with the uninhabitability of the rest of the planet as the world warms, that the shorter and more secure transportation routes across the Arctic Ocean between Europe and north-western Canada and the USA will make a completely different center to the world.

(Related: Humans Won’t Survive on Half the Earth by 2300)

Temperatures here are expected to range beyond what humans and most animals can comfortably make a living in by as soon as just 300 years away – about as long as US settlement by Europeans. While a thin strip at the coasts will still support life, the interiors in the shaded regions will become gradually devoid of human beings (and presumably the animals and plants suited to current temperatures).



Last year McMichael and Dear published Heat, Health and Longer Horizons at the National Academy of Sciences, sounding the alarm on long term climate change scenarios, referencing, among others, Sherwood and Huber’s Adaptability Limit to Climate Change Due to Heat Stress and determining that more than half the world we occupy today will be almost uninhabitable by 2300 due to temperature increase beyond what we can tolerate.

Danny Bloom  writes to publicize the many great solutions for climate change that we can find if we just put our minds to it.

Our Iceberg is Really, Really Melting!

Our Iceberg is Really, Really Melting!

-- A Global Warming Fable About Unhappy Penguins at Their Wits End

Illustrations by Deng Cheng-hong

by Danny Bloom

Once upon a time, no, make that, right now, on an iceberg
near you, the following distress call is going out pell mell, as
fast as we can write it down, to all penguins worldwide, whatever their stripes or colors or political leanings, and we tell this fable for one very important purpose and one very important purpose only: to save mankind from extinction befeore it is too late!

STORY TYPED IN LATER HERE.

(c) 2012-2015 Danny Bloom Productions

An Online Interview with Sci Fi Author John Patrick Lowrie on "Dancing with Eternity"

John and his wife Ellen in photo above. His website and ordering information here:
http://johnpatricklowrie.com/dancing.html

John Patrick Lowire lives in the Seattle area, where he is a
well-known voice actor who performs in video games such as The
Suffering and Half-Life 2. He also played Sherlock Holmes in The Further
Adventures of Sherlock Holmes radio show. He recently published
a science fiction novel titled "Dancing with Eternity" that takes
place in the 40th century.

When asked how he found the find time to
write the novel in between all his, other work, he told this blogger
in an email interview: "The book took
a lot longer to write than I would have liked. As you say, I'm pretty
busy with other aspects of my career. Also, the book is set in a far
future when death has been cured. Any book about a time when there is
no death is going to be about how we deal with death and loss. And in
the middle of writing the book, I was involved in a fatal car accident
where a close collegue of mine was killed. An event like this is so
transformative that any writing you do after it is going to be
profoundly affected. In all, it took almost seven years to write,
start to finish."

How did Lowrie arrive
at his time period for the novel?

I love quantum mechanics and how utterly weird it is," he said. "I was
thinking what kind of future science might be as unfathomable to us as
quantum mechanics would be to, say, Aristotle or Archimedes, someone
who lived 2,000 years ago, so I tried to come up with one."

"Dancing with Eternity" can be described as "a sprawling galactic odyssey"
that asks, "What would happen if Odysseus met Captain Ahab in the 40th
Century? Except that in Lowrie's book, Captain Ahab is a beautiful woman
named Steel who owns
her own starship and Odysseus is an unemployed actor named Mohandas
who’s stuck on the backside of a backwater moon because he won’t pay
his taxes.

The book is currently available in paperback and via all ebook platforms.

Lowrie, of course, loves science fiction, not only as a writer, but
also as a reader. When asked how it feels to have
his own sci fi book out in the marketplace, and which famous sci fi authors
played a pivotal role in his own development as an author, Lowrie
said: "It feels wonderful to have finally birthed the baby. I hope my
book has a long life and is enjoyed by readers for many years to come.
It's already being read in places as diverse as Norway and Chile.
Growing up, I was interested in space travel and going to other
planets from a very early age. This was back in the 1950s when we
still thought there might be civilizations on Venus and Mars. When I
was in the 6th grade a friend of mine introduced me to the works of
Robert Heinlein and Andre Norton. They were in our school library and
I devoured them. Then people like Ray Bradbury, Harlan Ellison, Aldous
Huxley, Samuel R. Delaney, Asimov, Clarke, Frank Herbert -- the list
is endless."

Why is sci fi such a popular genre? Lowrie's take: "Science fiction
has always served two purposes: to explore possibilities and to
express our anxieties about a rapidly changing world: changes that
were being brought about by the explosion of human knowlege as a
result of the scientific method. Mary Shelly's ''Frankenstien'' is an
example of the second area, Verne's ''Journey to the Center of the
Earth'' is an example of the first. But you had to have a society that
was being profoundly affected by scientific and technological
advancement. Before the 19th century technological change was still
very slow. Most people farmed and smithed the same way people had been
doing those things for centuries. It was the Age of Enlightenment
followed by the Industrial Revolution that brought about changes that
no one could have predicted: large scale migration from the
countryside and farming to the cities and factories. Up until the
1870s, hospitals were places you went to die. This unprecedented
explosion of capabilities and knowlege, most of which only a very few
people understood, started writers thinking about where it all might
be leading: good or bad. The 21st century is changing faster than any
time in history, so I think sci fi as a genre of literature and cinema
will be there to help us cope.''

The main themes of his book are egocentrism and unintended
consequenses, Lowrie says, adding: "As I said before, the
technological change that has taken place, and whose ramifications are
explored, is the curing of death. So a lot of the book is about
dealing with loss. I think anyone from high school age on up will
enjoy the book. It's quite an adventure."

Publicity for the book has followed Lowrie and his wife Ellen around
the country, too. He explains: "Because of our relative fame in the
computer game world, my wife, Ellen, and I have been travelling around
the country going to FanCons. These are wonderful opportunities to
meet the fans and get my book out there."

======================
THE INTERVIEW transcript

DANNY BLOOM: ........''Dancing with Eternity'', went to print in September. You are a
      well-known voice actor who performs in video games such as The
      Suffering and Half-Life 2, and played Sherlock Holmes in The Further
      Adventures of Sherlock Holmes radio show. How did you find time to
     write your novel in between all your other work? When did you
      start the project and when did you dot the final eye, in terms of time
     frame? 3 years? a year? from concept to turning in the manuscript
     to your editor?
JOHN PATRICK LOWRIE: The book took a lot longer to write than I would have liked. As you say, I'm pretty busy with other aspects of my career. Also, the book is set in a far future when death has been cured. Any book about a time when there is no death is going to be about how we deal with death and loss. In the middle of writing DWE, I was involved in a fatal car accident where a close collegue of mine was killed. An event like this is so transformative that any writing you do after it is going to be profoundly affected. In all, it took almost seven years to write, start to finish.

>     2. Your book takes place in the 40th Century, about 2o centuries from
>      now, so around 4000 AD.....How did you arrive
>      at that time period for the novel, and did you always have that time
>      frame in mind or did things change as you wrote the novel?

JOHN PATRICK LOWRIE: I love quantum mechanics and how utterly weird it is. I was thinking what kind of future science might be as unfathomable to us as quantum mechanics would be to, say, Aristotle or Archimedes, someone who lived 2,000 years ago, so I tried to come up with one.

> 3. Dancing with Eternity is described as "a sprawling galactic odyssey"
> that asks, "What would happen if Odysseus met Captain Ahab in the 40th
> Century?: Except that in your book, Captain Ahab is a beautiful woman
> named Steel who owns
> her own starship and Odysseus is an unemployed actor named Mohandas
> who’s stuck on the backside of a backwater moon because he won’t pay
> his taxes. SO far how are readers reacting to your setting and
> characters and theme? The blurbs have
> all been positive of course, but what kind of personal feedback have
> you been getting from readers, pro and con?

JOHN PATRICK LOWRIE: The reviews and reader feedback have been overwhelmingly positive. They love the story, they love the humor, they love the characters, they love the ending. It's really been very gratifying.

> 4. How did you hook up with Camel Press as your publisher? Did you
> use an agent to pitch your book and did you pitch it yourself? Is the
> book published in paperback and Ebook editions, and which format seems
> best for your readers, in your opinion?

JOHN PATRICK LOWRIE: The new aquisitions editor, Catherine Treadgold, sent me an email asking for genre manuscripts. I was submitting the book to literary agents at the time. I sent it to her, she read it and wanted to publish it. It was really as simple as that. It's available in paperback and all ebook platforms.

> 5. Sci fi has an honored place in American literature, from Isaac
> Isamov to Robert Heinlen, and now you. How does it feel to have
> your very own sci fi book out in the marketplace? Whcih sci fi authors
> played a pivotal role in yourn development as an author?

JOHN PATRICK LOWRIE: Well, it feels wonderful to have finally birthed the baby. I hope it has a long life and is enjoyed by readers for many years to come. It's already being read in places as diverse as Norway and Chile. Growing up I was interested in space travel and going to other planets from a very early age. This was back in the '50s when we still thought there might be civilizations on Venus and Mars. When I was in 6th grade a friend of mine introduced me to the works of Robert Heinlein and Andre Norton. They were in our school library and I devoured them. Then people like Ray Bradbury, Harlan Ellison, Aldous Huxley, Samuel R. Delaney, Asimov, Clarke, Frank Herbert--the list is endless.

> 6. Sci fi became popular in the 19th and 2oth century in Russia and
> France and the USA and has really exploded as a genre. Why do you
> thinkt here was so little sci fi before the 19th century, and now that
> we are in the 21st century of iPads and smart phones, do you think'
> sci fi will continue to be a popular genre in the future as well?

JOHN PATRICK LOWRIE: Science fiction has always served two purposes: to explore possibilities and to express our anxieties about a rapidly changing world: changes that were being brought about by the explosion of human knowlege as a result of the scientific method. Mary Shelly's Frankenstien is an example of the second area, Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth is an example of the first. But you had to have a society that was being profoundly affected by scientific and technological advancement. Before the 19th century technological change was still very slow. Most people farmed and smithed the same way people had been doing those things for centuries. It was the Age of Enlightenment followed by the Industrial Revolution that brought about changes that no one could have predicted: large scale migration from the countryside and farming to the cities and factories. Up until the 1870s hospitals were places you went to die. This unprecedented explosion of capabilities and knowlege, most of which only a very few people understood, started writers thinking about where it all might be leading: good or bad. The 21st century is changing faster than any time in history, so I think sci-fi will be there to help us cope.

> 7. Do you personally believe in UFOs, or alien life forms on other
> planets? Some people have described being abducfed by aliens
> landing in space ships in the USa and impregnating women on Earth? Are
> such accounts reliable as fact or are they figments
> of the abductees imagiantions, in your opinion?

JOHN PATRICK LOWRIE: What anyone believes is immaterial to what is out there. We're looking now for Earth-sized planets in the 'goldilocks zone' around thousands of other stars. We may find some. Whether we do or not, the implications will be huge for humanity.

> 8. What is the theme of YOUR book? Who is your target audience, in
> terms of age group?

JOHN PATRICK LOWRIE: I would say the themes of my book are egocentrism and unintended consequenses. As I said before, the technological change that has taken place, and whose ramifications are explored, is the curing of death. So a lot of the book is about dealing with loss. I think anyone from high school age on up will enjoy the book. It's quite an adventure.

> 9. Have you set up a national book tour for visiting different cities
> to promote the book, or is most of your marketing using the internet
> as a platform via social media such as Twitter and Facebook? What kind
> of marketing plan have you devised for the book over the next 12
> months?

JOHN PATRICK LOWRIE:  Because of our relative fame in the computer game world, my wife, Ellen, and I have been travelling around the country going to FanCons. These are wonderful opportunities to meet the fans and get the book out there.

> 10. Tv interviews in the Seattle area? Book signings in the Seatlle
> area? newspaper interviews in the Seatlle Area?

JOHN PATRICK LOWRIE: We've done four book signings in the Seattle area. TV and newspapers don't really care about science-fiction unless it's a blockbuster movie.

> 11. And with the success of your first sci fi book, are you working
> on a second scifi book as a follow up or sequel or as a completely new
> book?

JOHN PATRICK LOWRIE:  I am working on a new project, sci-fi but a completely different idea.

> 12. Any possible movie deals in the offering yet, or any nibbles from
> Hollywood via your publisher?

JOHN PATRICK LOWRIE:  It's way too early to be talking about movie deals. We'll see.

> 13. Last question: are YOU dancing with eternity as 2011 begins to
> wind down into the new year of 2012? What are your plans for the
> future, in terms of creative projectrs?

JOHN PATRICK LOWRIE:  I'm still very active as an actor and I'm writing my second novel. Other than that I try to find ways to be useful.

> 14. any chance for translations of your book into Japanese or Chinsee
> or Swedish?

JOHN PATRICK LOWRIE:  That depends on sales. Out of my hands.

Danny Bloom: Thank you, John, for your time today. Congratulations on your book, and good luck'
with your next one, too.

JOHN PATRICK LOWRIE: Thank you for the interview and the space on your blog.

Sci-fi writer Jim Laughter: 'Polar cities no laughing matter' -- 'Envisions so-called ''polar cities'' for future survivors of devastating climate change disasters'

http://www.climatedeport.com/

CONSERVATIVE CLIMATE WEBSITE FIRST WITH GLOBAL ALERT RE JIM LAUGHTER'S NEW BOOK -- POLAR CITY RED

QUOTE

Sci-fi writer Jim Laughter: 'Polar cities no laughing matter' -- 'Envisions so-called ''polar cities'' for future survivors of devastating climate change disasters'


link: http://www.climatedepot.com/,
scroll down to see item, which is just this headline and then links to Jim's interview here on this blog.

Interview with author of POLAR CITY RED, Jim Laughter, November 1, 2011

NOTE: This blog recently spent some time with American author Jim Laughter and asked him a series of questions about a FICTION NOVEL he is writing about global warming and climate change. Please note that Jim is not an environmentalist. He is a creative writer who is tackling the issue of global warming head-on and is writing a fascinating fiction novel about the possible effects it will have on future generations.

FULL INTERVIEW HERE:
http://pcofftherails101.blogspot.com/2011/11/online-interview-with-oklahoma-sci-fi.html

GLOBAL WARMING NO LAUGHING MATTER

Oklahoma science fiction writer Jim Laughter has seen the future, and he's not laughing. He envisions so-called ''polar cities'' for future survivors of devastating climate change disasters that will impact all four corners of the globe. Welcome to "Polar City Red," Laughter's 250-page sci-fi novel that is set for a 2012 debut.

Forget the mission to Mars, and start thinking about the mission to the North Pole.

"Global warming is no laughing matter," says Laughter, a grandfather of four in his late 50s and a 20-year veteran of the U.S. Air Force who was stationed in Japan and the Philippines, among other places.



"You know, I met a man just the other day who told me, who insisted,
that global warming is just
a myth," Laughter, author of ten sci-fi novels and a resident of Mounds, Oklahoma, told this reporter. "He saw a program on television that said it’s a scare tactic to direct people’s attention away from truly serious issues such as
the economy and the state of international affairs. He’s right about
one thing; it’s a scary subject. And if projections are correct about
the amount of carbon dioxide polluting our atmosphere, we’d better be scared. We may not be at the point of panic yet, but the day is coming when this is world is going to turn its back on us and invite us to
leave forever."



"So I'm putting my heart into this new book," Laughter added. "It's for my four grandkids. I hope it helps to wake the world up, too!"

"Polar City Red" is a not book written

by a scientist, ''since I am no scientist," Laughter is quick to add. "But I am approaching

the story as a family man concerned about the future of our planet. If my

sci-fi story can reach a small audience at first and later reach an

even greater

readership worldwide in translation, I'l be happy."



Laughter says ''Polar City Red'' is just a good old-fashioned yarn for the average lay person, but adds: "I’m sure scientists many times smarter than I am will read the

book and say, 'I could have said that better.' But I hope climate researchers will also enjoy the book, without being too critical. Hollywood screenwriters might want to take a peek, too. It's the day after 'The Day After Tomorrow' but based on global warming rather than global cooling. I think a visionary film director could have a field day with this."



Laughter says that as a fiction writer he is straddling the fence. "I hope the message I’m

trying to convey isn’t overshadowed by criticism and skepticism from climate denialists and skeptics," Laughter says. "You never know

when a scientist or activist studying global warming might read something in the

book and realize their life hasn’t been wasted trying to warn humankind of our folly

when we burn billions of tons of fossil fuels every year and expend dangerous

levels of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Global warming is no laughing matter."



Or so says Jim Laughter.



"I’m not smart enough to scientifically explain the intricacies of global

warming," Laughter adds. "But neither am I stupid enough to ignore the signs around me. I’ve

driven through a few stop signs and traffic lights in my life, only to be stopped by

policemen alert to the situation. The human race had better start paying attention

to the signs around us if we want to leave a habitable planet for generations to

come."

ONLINE INTERVIEW WITH OKLAHOMA SCI-FI WRITER JIM LAUGHTER ON HIS BOOK "POLAR CITY RED" -- SET FOR 2012 RELEASE

NOTE: AUTHOR NAME ON COVER DESIGN WAS MIS-SPELLED BY THE DESIGN LADY IN TAIWAN, BY MISTAKE. IT SHOULD READ, of course, JIM LAUGHTER

(c) JIM LAUGHTER 2011

[NOTE; This is NOT the book cover. This is just a draft cover designed by an artist overseas merely as a draft. The final book cover will be mucb different. Just to add some color to this page only.]

NOTE: This blog recently spent some quality online time with American author Jim Laughter and asked him a series of questions about a new book he is writing that I believe will forever change the face of apathy on global warming. I believe you will find it both interesting and entertaining. Please note that Jim is not an environmentalist. He is a writer who has tackled the issue of global warming head-on and is writing a fascinating fiction novel about the possible effects it will have on future generations. He has been kind enough to share the text of this new book with this blogger, but we are sworn to secrecy, so we’ve agreed not to post the content of his novel on this blog. Instead, we’ll let Jim reveal as much detail as he wants to, then we’ll wait for the book.

[DAN ADDS: I can tell you this; I’m hooked. I’ve read over and over the pieces of rough draft that he has sent to me and I can’t wait for the book to find a publisher and hit the market. If you are concerned about global warming and the damage it is causing to our planet, you will also want this new book.]

QUESTION #1: Without giving away the title of your book or its setting or time frame -- although if you wish to dish, please do -- what is your new book about, and what genre is it? Sci/Fi? Adventure thriller? Speculative fiction? What? Do any terms come to mind?

JIM lAUGHTER: I don’t mind telling YOU the title of MY new book. Unless something changes,
the title will be ''Polar City Red''.

I’ve never heard of speculative fiction, but I like the sound of it. I’m a fiction writer. I co-author a young adult sci/fi adventure series called ''Galactic Axia''. It is fiction based in science, but it’s not hard science fiction. Although I have a vivid imagination, I’m afraid science was not my strongest class in school. I tended more toward business math and English, literature, spelling, typing, recess; you know, the creative arts. I worked on the school yearbook staff and found the publishing aspect of the procedure fascinating. When I entered the Air Force in 1971, I instinctively gravitated toward the administration side of the service and became a supply specialist. I won’t tell you the names the mechanics and other grease monkeys tagged us supply types, but I always let them know that you can’t fly without supply.

Along with my sci/fi series, I also dabble in true crime, murder thriller, and children’s books. My most challenging book was writing From Victim to Hero – The Untold Story of Steven Stayner. This is a book about a 7-year-old boy from Merced, California that was kidnapped and held captive and abused for 7-years by a convicted pedophile. But after seven years, Steven escaped from his captor and rescued a second abducted child and returned him to his family. Although I wrote the book in fiction format, the facts of the book are true, and even ninety percent of the names are real people. It took me six months to write this book because the facts involved tore at me every day. There were times when I didn’t think I’d be able to finish it, and then I would think about this brave child that risked his own life to rescue another boy. I knew I couldn’t lay the project aside, if for no other reason than to preserve his legacy.

My most recent novel is a murder thriller titled The Apostle Murders. Including the research involved, as well as other circumstances, it took almost two years to complete this book. I know that sounds
excessive, but I wanted to be absolutely certain that given the premise of the
book, I had all of my facts correct. This is a book about a modern-day Christian
evangelist that has grown discontent with the state of Christianity and believes
God has called him to restore order to the modern church. Although he is a
true believer, and his faith is unwavering, he believes that God has called him
to recreate the martyrdom of the original apostles of Jesus Christ. So while he’s
preaching on the weekend, he’s a serial killer during the week, traveling the
country in search of God’s next apostolic sacrifice. Of course, there’s a dedicated
team of federal investigators hot on his trail, one of which is perfectly suited to
track a religious fanatic, one that is an ivy league-educated female agent, and
another that is the crabby old uncle we all try to forget. This eclectic cast of
characters will keep you on your toes. By the way, I based the serial killer on my
own father. Enough said…

And now for one more shameless plug. October 1, 2011 saw the release of my first
children’s book. Strangers in the Stable is a look at the birth of Jesus Christ
as seen from the viewpoint of the animals in the stable that first Christmas over
2000 years ago. It is a beautifully illustrated 3-D graphic book that tells the story
of Jesus’ birth from a unique perspective.

All of my books can be viewed at my website http://www.jimlaughter.com/
 where
readers will find all the links they need to order paperback, kindle, and nook
versions. The paperback versions of my books are less expensive at my website
than they are anywhere else in the world, and I usually have a ready supply on
hand for immediate shipment. I’d love to sign 100,000 copies and mail them out
tomorrow. Well, maybe not all 100,000 tomorrow, but pretty darn quick.

Now back to your original question about the genre of Polar City Red. To say this
is science fiction might be a bit of a stretch, and I don’t think it’s an adventure. It
is shaping up into a bit of a thriller but I don’t expect it to continue in that vein.

You asked me what the book is about. If you were anyone else, I’d come back with
a smart-aleck reply and say it’s about 300 pages. Instead, I guess my simplest
answer would be that it’s about the effects global warming will have on the planet
and on future generations faced with either survival or extinction.

From the reports I’ve read and the research I’ve done, global warming is a real
threat to the survival of our planet. I don’t really know enough about the hard
science behind global warming to make any scientific predictions, but it doesn’t
take a rocket scientist to see that the worldwide climate is going through dramatic
changes. Unless governments around the world gain control of the carbon
dioxide levels overtaking the atmosphere, we are going to lose our planet. We’ve
seen weather-pattern shifts over the last twenty-years that may set the standard
for climate changes for thousands of years to come.

I did something this year that I never thought I would ever do in Oklahoma – I
bought a snow blower! Why? Because Oklahoma has suffered unprecedented
blizzards the last several years and I’ve been snowed in over a dozen times. Quite
frankly, I’m tired of shovels.

2. Dan: When did you start writing Polar City Red, and when do you hope/plan to
finish it and send it to your longtime publisher, where you have already published
a half-dozen of your books?

Jim: I wrote the prologue for ''Polar City Red'' in August 2011. As you know, a
mutual friend of ours, author Charles W. Sasser approached me with information
that you had sent to him concerning the effects of global warming on the
environment. He thought the information was intriguing and would make a
good book but he was tied up in two or three other projects that he could not
get away from, and I had had just finished The Apostle Murders and Strangers
in the Stable. Charles endorsed The Apostle Murders, so he asked me if I’d like
to take a stab at global warming. After spending a few days on the computer
reading everything I could find about the phenomenon, and after communicating
a couple of times with you, I decided this was a story that needed to be told.

I don’t really have a deadline for Polar City Red. I am not locked into a next-
project contract, so I plan to keep my options open and possibly publish this one
through a larger publishing house.


If I can stay on my current
schedule and working outline, I hope to have the first draft finished by the end of
January. Since I am writing it as a fiction, it will depend on my characters and if
they stay focused on the task at hand. I try to not let them wonder too far afield,
but to paraphrase something Forest Gump’s momma told him, “A novel is a box
of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.”

3. Dan: Who is your target audience for this new book? Teens? Young adults?
College students? Middle-aged adults? Climate activists? Climate
denialists? Who? Just in general or in a few categories.

Jim: I don’t really think I’d tag an age group to the readership of this book. It
will be entertaining enough to hold the interest of the most avid fiction reader,
yet factual enough to stir the hearts of politicians and other civic leaders to action
to protect our world. I had a man tell me yesterday that global warming is just
a myth. He saw a program on television, so it must be true, that said it’s a scare
tactic to direct people’s attention away from truly serious issues such as the
economy and the state of international affairs. He’s right about one thing; it’s a
scary subject. And if projections are correct about the amount of carbon dioxide
polluting our atmosphere, and about the oceans and forests losing their ability to
absorb nitrogen from the air and produce oxygen, we’d better be scared. We may
not be at the point of panic yet, but the day is coming when this old world is going
to turn its back on us and invite us to leave forever.

4. Dan: Who do you hope reads your book? Al Gore? Bill McKibben, James
Hansen?

Jim: I hope this book will be read by everyone concerned about the world we
live in; by people who care about the future of their children and grandchildren,
and about the planet we leave for succeeding generations. Of course, I’d be very
happy if any of these gentlemen would read the book. They are all respected
leaders in the fight against global warming. Being a writer, I’d certainly welcome
a blurb or endorsement from any of them. I believe this book will not only
entertain readers but will also help bring to light the dangers our planet faces.

5. Dan: Who is the book about? What is the theme of your new book, without
giving away too much of the plot or intricate details in terms of the characters you
are creating? A family in the future? Scientists in the future? Average Joe in the
future?

Jim: Polar City Red is set near the end of the 21st century after the Earth has
been devastated by the effects of global warming. The polar caps have melted

and sea levels have risen past their capacity. Trillions of tons of water have
moved inland, devastating the infrastructures of the world. Massive fires have
devastated the Earth’s woodlands, weather patterns have changed, glacial melt
has swelled rivers and lakes out of their banks, and governments have fallen. But
situated 300 miles north of the city once known as Fairbanks, Alaska, one of a
dozen scientific communities set up in the early 21st century is now home to a
remnant of humanity’s survivors that have migrated to the once-frozen tundra to
carve out new lives for themselves and their children. This city is Polar City Red.

Yes, there is a scientific element central to the story, and I’ve created a cast of
very strong characters. One of the families is a doctor and her school teacher
husband, the scientist in charge of the city, an eccentric hunter, a military
element, and scavengers that refuse to live by the laws established by the
community. Woven together into a fast-paced narrative, you will experience their
frustrations and their delights. There is a tragic element to the story. There has to
be when you talk about the loss of billions of lives. But there is also a human and
humorous element in the story when mankind proves once again that we are not
only capable of destroying everything around us, we’re still able to keep our noses
out of the water to live another day.

6. Dan: If I understand your Galactic Axia series, you’ve written over a dozen
sci/fi novels and have a good track record with your publisher. Polar City Red is
about climate change and global warming impacts in the future. Do you think
there is much of an audience for this kind of fictional novel?

Jim: Yes, the Galactic Axia series is a huge undertaking. At present, there are
four books published in the 20-book series, so we still have a long way to go
with that project. Truth is, my co-author (Victor Bretthauer) and I have written
the rough drafts for sixteen of the books in the series. We have two manuscripts
awaiting publication now, and we plan to release two or three books a year until
the series is fully published. But sci/fi runs in spurts, and it’s difficult to promote,
so we’re taking our time and doing it one step at a time.

As for a book about global warming, yes, I believe there is an audience for it as
long as I can keep it enjoyable to read, informative, and relevant. I want people
to read this book then make their own conscientious decision to investigate
the issue to global warming. I want people to make up their own minds about
the dangers facing humanity, not just listen to the talking heads that spew
their rhetoric and the fossil-fuel burning industries whose only concern is their
profit sheet. If global warming is the imminent threat it appears to be, we’d all
of us better start thinking for ourselves. Don’t take my word for it. Don’t take

anybody’s word for it. Do your own homework, weigh the matter, then make your
own decision.

7. Dan: When the book is published, what are your promotion plans? Local and
national newspaper and television station interviews? Book signings at local
stores? Readings? Lectures?

Jim: All of the above, and as much as I can get. Of course, promotion is an
important part of the publishing business. It’s not like it used to be in the
old days when a publisher bought a manuscript then spent millions of dollars
promoting it. Writers at all levels of success are now expected to promote their
own work. Very few publishers assign a publicist to a writer now, so writers
hire their own publicists. The good news is that with the advent of social media
outlets, a writer can now promote himself/herself as well as any agent or hired-
gun. It just takes time, effort, and tenacity to establish their brand and get their
work into the public eye.

I hate to say it but bookstores are almost a thing of the past. Electronic books
such as Kindle, Nook, and iBook have replaced trips to the bookstore where
shoppers browsed the bookshelves looking for that perfect fireside read. For
example (here’s another shameless plug), a person shopping with their Kindle
or Nook reader (including smart phone applications) can buy any of my novels
for $2.99 each instead of $15 in a bookstore. This doesn’t bother me or any other
writer a bit because the royalty we get is about the same either way.

I know that doesn’t make much sense to the average reader, but paper books are
expensive to produce, distribute, and shelve. Electronic books download instantly
to the device so a reader can sit by the pool, download a book, and have access to
it within seconds instead of ordering a book that takes two weeks to get to them.
Now electronic books are coming available for loan at libraries just like paper
books. It’s a win-win for everyone.

8. Dan: Since your book is about climate change and global warming, but
written as a fiction novel set in the near future and focuses on climate issues and
the survival of the human race, do you think people like Al Gore or Bill McKibben
might read it and maybe even support it with cover blurbs or reviews they write
themselves?

Jim: As I answered in one of the preceding questions, I certainly hope they
will read this book and find it entertaining and informative. I would certainly
welcome a blurb or review by Mr. Gore, Mr. Hansen, or Mr. McKibben. All of

these men are respected leaders in the field of climate integrity.

9. Dan: You are in your late 50s. You’ve worked and travelled around the world
to dozens of countries. You served 20 years in the U.S. Air Force with tours of
duty in Japan, the Philippines, and England, as well as military bases in the United
States, so you know this planet pretty well. You have three children and four
grandchildren. Is your novel intended in any way as a kind of love letter to your
grandchildren and generations down the road? Is this something you hope your
own grandkids might read when they grow up?

Jim: Well, first things first, and I guess the first thing I should do is run down to
the drug store and pick up a bottle of Grecian Formula and try to brush some of
this grey out of my beard and hair.

Yes, I’m sneaking up on 60 years of age, and I have travelled around the world a few
times. I spent 20 years-active duty in the U.S. Air Force and served 13 of
those years in foreign countries. I’m not sure I’m as world-wise as you think I am,
but I’ve been around the block a time or two.

My three children (all boys) are grown men now with families of their own,
and my four grandchildren are the light of my life. I am truly blessed with a
wonderful family. I wouldn’t trade any of it for anything. It would have been nice
if my wife had been rich when I married her 40 years ago this past September,
but she wasn’t and we’re still together. No regrets.

Is ''Polar City Red'' a love letter to my grandchildren with hope they may read it
when they grow up? Good question: I hadn’t thought about it that way.

I hope they’ll read and
understand it and heed its message. My youngest grandchild is only 1-year old, so
by the time she’s 30, there will be 14 billion people living on this planet. Unless
we do something drastic to prevent it, those 14 billion people will be burning
unprecedented amounts of fossil fuels and our atmosphere will be saturated with
so much carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses that it won’t be able to
survive.

I am concerned with what kind of world we’re leaving our grandchildren.
So no, it’s not a ''love letter'' to my grandchildren. If anything, it’s ''a plea'' for them to
live life aware of their environment and to become part of the solution, not part of
the problem.

10. What is your own personal take on climate change and global warming?
Should we be worried? By we, I mean the human race? Are we under threat for
the future, or has the entire thing been overblown?

Jim: I said earlier in this interview that I bought a snow blower this year for the first
time in my life. I shoveled enough snow the last three winters to fill a freight
train. Floods and fire ravage our world, along with unprecedented monster
storms and environmental disturbances that destroy everything they touch. I am
convinced from the limited research that I’ve been able to do that global warming
and the threat of greenhouse gasses trapped in our atmosphere is a real threat
to the survival of humanity as a species. We are, after all, the only species on the
planet intelligently stupid enough to cause our own extinction. If we continue on
the course we’ve traveled the last 100 years, mankind as we know it will cease to
exist within the next two centuries. Is that answer grim enough?

11. Dan: Will your book be accessible and understandable, both for lay people
who do not know much about the science of global warming, and for the
community of scientists and climate activists who have been studying this issue
for years?

Jim: I’m not smart enough to scientifically explain the intricacies of global
warming. But neither am I stupid enough to ignore the signs around me. I’ve
driven through a few stop signs and traffic lights in my life, only to be stopped by
policemen alert to the situation. The human race had better start paying attention
to the signs around us if we want to leave a habitable planet for generations to
come.

Yes, ''Polar City Red'' will be both accessible and understandable to the lay person.
I’m sure scientists many times smarter than me will read the
book and say, “I could have said that better.” They’re probably right. But I hope scientists will also enjoy the book, without
being too critical.

I think I write well enough for people at all educational levels to read the book
and find something they can take home with them. And I hope the message I’m
trying to convey isn’t overshadowed by criticism and skepticism. You never know
when a scientist or activist studying global warming might read something in the
book and realize their life hasn’t been wasted trying to warn mankind of our folly
when we burn billions of tons of fossil fuels every year and expend dangerous
levels of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Dan: This has been an informative and enlightening conversation with Jim
Laughter. I know I’m looking forward to the release of ''Polar City Red'' in 2012. We’ll see
about posting a few excerpts from the book from time to time, and will keep our
readers informed of its progress.

Thanks again, Jim, for spending time with this blogger online, and for answering
questions that I know the readers of the blog will be interested in. Let’s stay in
touch.

Jim: It’s been fun. And yes, we’ll see about posting a few excerpts from time to
time as the book progresses. My problem with excerpts is that I’m always editing
and changing stuff, so the excerpt we post may not be in the final draft. But again, “A novel is a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.”