Madison's African Rivers

Madison's African Rivers is done, finally!

E-book is out on Kindle (no, no other e-book format yet).
Paperback in a few days all over.
I almost maxed my software a few times due to all the art details (fish scales take lots of CPU work in vector art!), but did what I could in loading it. 28 Pages total.
Included hippos, elephants (my youngest nieces call them 'elpitants'), crocodiles, giraffes, and of course dozens of real tropical fish.  A fish geek (like myself) will notice many parallels between the fish in the Congo and Nile, and those in the Amazon River in South America. The Characin and Cichlid families are key, as are minnows (barbs) and puffers.
For fun here is comparison:
Africa Fish/South America Fish:
Tigerfish/Dorado (both Characins)
Mbu Puffer in the Congo and Fahaka Puffer in the Nile/Amazon River Puffer--
Tilapia/ Festivus (and many other Cichlids) --
Brownspot Largemouth Cichlid/Peacock Bass.

For all those who saw me at SciFest Saturday 24 Feb at the STL Science Center, sorry if you caught the cold I had. The Mock up Space Farm was a definite hit (with real bioreactors and a teeny hydroponic bed with lettuce sprouts).  Look for the same rig at Earth Day in Forest Park.  The Space Books are of course on Amazon too. Next one will be You Will Fly Spaceships...

Now to focus on that next SciFi Book (in edit...hopefully before EOCY!)!

Clear skies and calm waters,
Bryce

Meiklo Gets Better

I broke my usual cycle and put out a long overdue book that I started in 2016, though I thought needed done after we lost our pup, and their parents tried to explain to my young nieces and nephews.
The new book, Meiklo Gets Better (will hit the shelves week of 19-23 Feb) answers a very tough question: How do you talk about cancer to younger children, without frightening them? I don't know anyone who hasn't had a family member with cancer, and my family is no exception. The answer came when our dog, Meiklo got lymphoma a couple of years ago, and went through many rounds of chemo (far cheaper with fewer side effects than for people), went into remission (though after a year of remission, and more chemo, the pup lost, though the book skips that part).

Dogs are a very non-threatening way of providing a lesson, and this lesson ends with remission.

Meiklo Gets Better is a true story, drawn from my pictures, that covers the process of diagnosis, getting chemo (drawings from pictures taken by our vet oncologist and staff, Dr. Smith at VSS, during treatment), and going into remission.  It should be very helpful to:
1) Kids with cancer
2) Kids in families where someone has cancer
3) As part of a school lesson on cancer.
4) People with pets getting chemo.

As per always, royalties from this picture book will go to children's charities, and I will donate a stack of books to children's cancer centers (Cardinal Glennon, St. Jude, Etc.).

Look for the book next week, and God bless you if this issue hits home for you,
Bryce

Charlotte's Arctic Ocean

Latest and Greatest book in the Fishes and Whales Series, Charlotte's Arctic Ocean, is finally out! Perfectly appropriate for the cold winter weather too. This picture book (and Kindle e-book) is about the animals and fishes that make the Arctic home. This means polar bears, arctic foxes, harp seals, walrus, Greenland sharks, arctic char, and many, many others. As per usually, all the animals can (or soon can) be purchased on shirts,wrap, etc. via my cafepress,  spoonflower, sprout, roostery, and zazzle sites.
Cover:

Description:
Explore the icy ocean at the top of the world! All ages from baby and up can listen and learn, and elementary school kids can read on their own.  Learn about the animals that make the ice and water home, from polar bears, to Arctic foxes, to beluga whales, to narwhals, to giant sharks, to fuzzy seals, to orcas, to porpoises, and many others. Puffins and auks live. Colorful Arctic char, cod, capelin, and halibut are depicted as they swim. This book covers the real-world species as they make the waters under the ice, and the ice, home.  At the end is an identification guide to allow the reader, or listener, to find the animals in the wild or at a zoo.

Look for Madison's African Rivers next!

Enjoy!
Bryce

Space Geeky Stuff and eBooks

Still working on 4 books: 2 kids fish books (Madison's African Rivers, Charlotte's Arctic Ocean), 1 kids space book (You Will Fly Spaceships), and editing my latest Sci-fi book (you will see it sooner then later, done writing, on 3rd edit round).  Outside of that I put out a few fun things:
1) A 5th grade space settlement and solar system slide set I did for a preso I did for a school in St. Louis county at http://www.combat-fishing.com/animationspace/spacelessons.html and a few new technical presentations and papers on space stuff (from NSS ISDC 2017, on Hydroponics, etc.)  at: http://www.combat-fishing.com/animationspace/terraform.html .

2) Note: I typically do the kids books on Kindle due to the ability to easily make illustration heavy files.  I am sorry that no other format is out on other platforms yet, so please don't skewer me because I am not on everything right off the bat.  FYI, EVERY platform can download the Kindle client for free here: https://www.amazon.com/kindle-dbs/fd/kcp including Apple/Mac/iOS, then you can read all my eBooks.

Tight lines and May you plant your boots on alien worlds,
Bryce

See me (or you) at ISDC 2017

I will be presenting a paper on Space Farms @ISDC 2017 in St. Louis 25-29 May and you too can attend, meet some really big space people, and in general have a good time.  Very cheap for a conference, and ANYONE can attend, no geek credentials required. This is not the high end academic stuff, though even they can enjoy it.  Good for ANYONE who likes cool space stuff.
register at:  http://isdc2017.nss.org/

Calling all space farmers!
My latest book in the You Will ____ Space TM Series, You Will Farm In Space, will be out by next week.

Work is done. Will be on Amazon, etc. soon after. For those who want the techno-geek grown up information, I presented two professional papers out at the AIAA SPACE 2016 conference, the presentations can be found on my Terraforming and Colonization page along with another preso I did for St. Louis Space Frontier Gateway to Space 2016 conference on the same topic. The professional papers are of course in the proceedings, etc. Lets my mad scientist side poke out :0)
Look for the You Will Fly Spaceships next in the series in a few months.
Later,
Bryce

Both adult coloring books are now out

• Of Oceans and Rivers, Fishes and Whales: A Coloring Book of Marine Life for Grown-ups and other Children
• Of Oceans and Rivers, Fishes and Whales II: A Coloring Book of Marine Life Patterns for Grown-ups and Others

, now back to Sci-fi and fishing books (and art for my next two children's fish books, and for my next kids space book).

Currently revising a yet unpublished sci-fi novel of around 115K words. Will run a copyedit on it, then target Kindle Scout initially, since the few remaining traditional publishers won't take it.

Also doing some new cover art for my buddy Don Firesmith's latest book Hell Holes. Yes, I already did the cover art for my own new book, a vast improvement to any of my predecessor covers...

Will eventually rewrite and expand Web of Ice, Gossamer Crystals  into a new title (trademarked of course) Red White, Blue, and Green Marbles (with new, vastly improved cover art...hey I learned a lot since I did that one...drawing all those fish made me better..see my art blog) which is the same book, though with adult targeting, and a complete edit and re-write. Really, there is nothing wrong with the current Web of Ice, Gossamer Crystals but now with more work under my belt, I would like to re-tackle the human interactions it.  I have been told the current book is still a good read for anyone 7th grade and up. There will also be a prequel: Red White, Blue Marbles which focuses on the societies of Earth, Moon, and Mars up to the first Interstellar flight. Since I now have a bit of cred in the real space colonization research world (see my technical papers) I think they will have more technical depth than even Web of Ice, Gossamer Crystals .

Later,
B