The Adventure Can Be Yours

Visit Science Fiction for Thinkers.com today.

Your world may never look the same.

This post was update on 1-27-13 to replace a video that no longer exists.

They Were Right: Earth is Hell

"The hell with this. I'm going home."

"Science Fiction for Thinkers" Unmasked

The World Wide Web seems to be pointing people away from real science fiction these days. That's mostly due to the influence of Hollywood and Madison Avenue. And that's unfortunate because Michael Casher's unique blend of hard science fiction, action/adventure, humor and romance is a new and often astonishing sci-fi experience you won't want to miss out on.

So, what's hard science fiction? Before we tell you that, we'll you what it's NOT. It's not vampires and dragons and monsters and mutants. That's horror. And it's not space opera, intergalactic warlords or space erotica, which has often been mistaken for real science fiction. That's fantasy and smut. Real science fiction is fiction that has some kind of "science" in it, emerging or speculative or theoretical science.

What makes science fiction "hard" is mostly the high-tech element. Futuristic hardware, newfangled gadgets, exotic gizmos, techno-wizardry and all that fun electronic, cosmic speculative science. But it's also the scientific concepts and theories that go along with all that gadgetry. That's what makes hard science fiction seem so believable.

And, if you're wondering what "crossover" science fiction is, we'll spill the beans about that right now. That's genre sci-fi that contains some elements of another genre. Michael Casher's sci-fi combines science fiction, action/adventure, humor and even romance, but it reads like mainstream. You get real — but readable — science fiction, instead of the overrated and overdone sci-fi fantasy that's front loaded with confusing techno-speak, smut and creepy, dark themes.

So, you can forget about castles and capes and swords and unicorns and twisted religious history, too. That's fantasy, which is fodder for moviegoers and gamers and aftermarket pablum for kids with bottomless pocketbooks. Not only is it not science fiction, that kind of tripe is way overdone, to the point of saturation, in fact.

Science Fiction for Thinkers is science fiction for "grownups", adults who aren't so obsessed with sex, violence, swords, Satan, inscrutable ancient scrolls, romantic fantasies and flying waffle irons that they forget how to think for themselves. Remember the 90's phrase, "think out of the box"? That's the kind of readers we're looking for. People who are hungry for adventure, new knowledge and cutting-edge concepts about life, time & space and death.

Michael Casher, Science Fiction for Thinkers and Science Fiction for Thinkers.com invite you to "read out of the box". Your world may never look the same.

Why Me?

╥

Good-bye, Goodreads, and Good Riddance

Today I deleted my account and my affiliation with Goodreads because of book links to erotica (a polite word for smut) on my profile page. My god, isn't there a decent place left on the World Wide Web anymore?

I removed Goodreads from the Science Fiction for Thinkers page at Facebook and undid the the "Michael Casher at Goodreads" links from my Blogger blogs' sidebars and from the sidebar of my Lulu storefront. As I discover more forgotten links that connect me to Goodreads and vice-versa I'll sever them as well.

People who dare to connect me to erotica of any kind, hate, illegal pharmaceuticals, pornography, religion, or any other kind of counter-evolutionary nonsense will soon find out that they've taken the bull by the horns. If you've always possessed a certain civic-minded tolerance for other people's lifestyles and beliefs, like I have, rat-bastard scoundrels will come out of the woordwork in droves to take advantage of you. Well, I've had it.

The biped creatures on this planet can damn well do as they please. That's what freedom is all about. But don't even think about linking me to the above topics. If you do, you will become my enemy for life. That's a promise and that's also my goddamn right. I'm living proof that if you push a good guy too far, you'll see another side of him you'll wish you hadn't.

That's it, then. And, if you don't like it, I couldn't give a rat's ass. In that case, just go away and make me a happier man.

Author's Note: Shortly after I posted this on Thinker's Corner I closed out my Facebook account, as well.

Slug Fest

Hmmm. Slugs have apparently infested FeedBurner because my blogs are riddled with them. I doubt if the hardware store has any feed-slug spray but I'll check it out later. In the meantime... time to reconnoiter.

Oh, yeah. For those of you who have no clue what a blog slug is (or a blog feed slug, which is a bottom-feeder without a home), just click on the pic.

Don't like this posting? Then go away and infest someone else's blog. It's no skin off my ass.

Life Unmasked

"Fiction is real life without its mask." That's been my signature line since 2004. What mask am I talking about? All the masks we wear, all the masks you wear, all the masks they wear. The big mask.

Power over others is upheld throughout the universe by lies. Without lies and deception, we would all be free and equal. Be a thinker and think about that.

Tally-ho!

Paperback and Kindle editions of all my books are now available through Amazon.co.uk, which is the United Kingdom version of Amazon. Remember, if you don't own a Kindle wireless reading device you can still buy and read my Kindle editions, using the FREE Kindle app for Android, Blackberry, iPhone, iPad, PC and Mac. Here are two links to my books at Amazon.co.uk:

The complete listing for my books (includes my novella by Jonco Bugos)

The Michael Casher Author Page at Amazon.co.uk

Tally-ho!

Behind The Mask

Do I ever think about extraterrestrials in real life? You bet I do. I think about them all the time. But the Hollywood cutie-pie and harmless versions (like this one) never cross my mind because I really doubt if they exist. What's really out there is less comical and more diabolical. I think about and write about what might go on behind the mask of real, everyday life and what probably does.

I write about extraterrestrials all the time, too. In my blogs I often use them to deliver comedy and light-hearted entertainment (click on pic for example) but in my sci-fi thrillers I do a lot more. In my novels I show a more sinister side of the extraterrestrial phenomenon. A sample of otherworldy power and unbridled ambition that I actually tasted in real life, as a boy. That's right, I'm talking about extraterrestrial influences in my life, including abduction and medical experimentation. But the extraterrestrial interference that bothers me the most is the manipulation of life events for social and biological experimentation. You got it. The big picture.

That's right. I write about Earth as one of the biggest experimental laboratories in the Milky Way Galaxy. Maybe the biggest. And right again, based not only on my own childhood experiences, but on my continued observations of not only my own life but life on Earth in general. It's not easy to live your life while observing it at the same time.

But that's what I do. And I've been doing it all my life.

A Sucker for a Beach Boys Summer

When I graduated from high school way back in 1969 what I wanted more than anything was to be a beach boy for the entire summer. Southern California would have been a great place to do that and I used to daydream about working in a surfboard store and surfing and having this beach bunny girlfriend and the whole nine yards.

What I got instead was a few weeks in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, a job as a bus boy and dishwasher and a fickle girlfriend who liked older guys who had flashy cars, money to burn and more interesting jobs. But at least I had my big dreams and my favorite beach boy music.

I've been way too old for wanting to be a beach boy for more years than I care to remember but, when I think of the great summer sounds of The Beach Boys, I still think about the Summer of '69 and how it could have been.

Here are 14 of my favorite songs by The Beach Boys.
The red numbers indicate my six favorites:

California Girls

Dance, Dance, Dance 2

Don't Worry Baby 1

Do You Wanna Dance?

Fun, Fun, Fun 6

Hawaii

Help Me, Rhonda

I Get Around 4

Little Deuce Coupe

Sloop John B

Surfer Girl 3

Surfin' USA

Wouldn't It Be Nice

Your Summer Dream 5

"Kindling" for your Summer Campfire

All my books are available through Amazon's Kindle Store. My full-length science fiction novels are only $3.99 each while the novella Blind Fool Running and my book of blogs, The Four Bloggers of the Apocalypse, are a mere $2.99 each. These e-Books can be purchased through Amazon's Kindle Store and read on Kindle and the Kindle application for Android, Blackberry, iPhone, iPad, PC, Mac and Windows Phone.

Now that's an e-Book deal everybody can live with. Click on the image below for books by me in the Amazon Kindle Store.

post updated 2-16-13

A Sucker for Petula Clark

Back in the 1960s I was a sucker for Petula Clark and her particular brand of music. Sweet love songs with a big London street sound delivered by an attractive blonde with an English accent. I was in love the first time I heard her on the radio, even before I saw her on Ed Sullivan. It became a life-long love affair that I'll gladly take with me to my grave.

Yeah, Petula Clark was old enough to be my mother but having a crush on somebody older back in the 1960s was normal and wholesome and even chaste. Before Petula Clark came along my biggest crushes were Annette Funicello, Haley Mills and — that's right — Doris Day and Julie Andrews. It was the early 1960s. There were still plenty of good people and even innocent people in the world.

"Pet" Clark perfectly represented the "other Sixties", the overlooked part of that decade that flowed naturally out of the 1950s. The hidden side of the 60s where people still liked the way things were and wanted them to go on forever. That part of the world that still went to school and graduated and dated and fell in love and got married and had babies because that was happiness enough. It was what a lot of people wanted. It was what I wanted.

Being a teenager who "went for" Petula Clark made me understand why girls went for Elvis. I went for Petula Clark because she made me feel good about being a boy and then a man and she always made me feel good about being alive.

1. Downtown (1965)

2. Call Me (1965)

3. I Know A Place (1965)

4. You're the One (1965)

5. Color My World (1966)

6. A Sign of the Times (1966)

7. I Couldn't Live Without Your Love (1966)

8. Don't Sleep in the Subway (1967)

9. Beautiful in The Rain (1968)

10. Kiss Me Goodbye (1968)

Thank you, YouTube.

And thanks to all the Petula Clark fans who uploaded her music to YouTube.

Blogburg 2010

Vancouver wasn't the only place to have a great big happening in 2010. This is the year I revamped my blogs — all eight of them. I'm also in the process of migrating the Jonco Bugos blog from LiveJournal, post by post. When I'm done, LiveJournal and its nonstop Flash ads that won't let you navigate the blog until they've played out will be in my rear-view mirror forever.

Thank heavens for Blogger and especially for the new "Blogger in draft". It was a lot of work redesigning eight blogs but the great-looking templates by Josh Peterson and Tina Chen were the best foundations I could have had to build upon. I used them for all but Think-A-Holic Lounge which continues to occupy no space in the physical universe. I just gave the joint a new neon sign.

So, now that I've dressed up my blogs in their spiffy new Easter outfits for 2010 (sorry, I just couldn't resist the apropos analogy) feel free to check them all out at Science Fiction for Thinkers.com /  Blogs.
Post Update: I added this animated blog gif on 12-23-10 to add some "rich content" to this anemic posting. So, the Jonco Bugos blog looks like it was already migrated and revamped on 4-1-10, but it wasn't. As you can see, literary license also applied to blogging.

Visit Science Ficion for Thinkers.com Today

My official website has a cool new feature for 2010. My little "cyber home away from home" now has one-click links on the Home page that instantly translate Science Fiction for Thinkers.com from English into Spanish, Vietnamese, Russian, French and German. I had to delete the link to Chinese because some browsers wouldn't display the Simplified Chinese characters. But there is another link to an online Google Site Translator that can translate my website into many other languages, including Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Korean and Japanese.

So, go ahead. Visit Science Fiction for Thinkers.com today.

Your world may never look the same.

Author's Update, 03-01-14: No good deed ever goes unpunished. In December 2013 I had to remove all the language translation links from my website except the main Google Translator with the drop-down box that lets you choose what Google is offering. The other tools either didn't work anymore or became hidden redirects to other Google content. I tried to make my content available to as many people on the planet as I could. But, I 'm a fool no more.

Author's Update, 12-26-10: I had to remove the one-click links that translate my website into Chinese, Korean and Japanese because I found out that these links would not display properly with the Internet Explorer browser. Firefox worked fine but not IE. However, you can still translate my website into Chinese, Korean and Japanese by clicking on either one of the two links that allow you to choose your desired language. Thanks.

Snow Porch

Photo ©2008 by Michael Casher

I guess I should do something about my exposed porch furniture in the wintertime. But then I wouldn't be able to take interesting snapshots like this one. Anyone care to sit down?

A Sucker for a Sixties Song

I'm not a sucker for a Sixties song very often. But every now and then...

1. Baby Don't Go - Sonny & Cher (1964)
2. California Dreamin' - The Mamas & the Papas (1965)
3. Turn Turn Turn - The Byrds (1965)
4. Eight Miles High - The Byrds(1966)
5. For What It's Worth - Buffalo Springfield (1967)
6. A Whiter Shade Of Pale - Procul Harum (1967)
7. Light My Fire - The Doors (1967)
8. Play With Fire - The Rolling Stones (1965)
9. Like A Rolling Stone - Bob Dylan (1965)
10.Homeward Bound - Simon & Garfunkel (1966)