After reading hundreds of stories and days of painful deliberating, I can cheerfully announce the Table of Contents for Volume Two of the Mirror Shards anthology.  Congratulations to all who made it.

Mirror Shards: Volume Two

I’m more than pleased to announce my Kindle best-selling novelette The Cageless Zoo is now available in audiobook.  The ultra-talented Arielle DeLisle was the narrator and audio producer.  If you enjoy easy-to-access science fiction with a twist of light horror, then give this story a listen.

Visiting the galaxy’s only Cageless Zoo should be a special treat for Melandre and her children. Except she’s still trying to reckon with her husband’s recent death and how she’s going to raise two highly independent children on her own. As their visit quickly falls to chaos, Melandre learns that family is the only thing left she has to rely on.

The Cageless Zoo audiobook can be found at Amazon, iTunes, and Audible for $6.95.  Free copies are available with a trial subscription to Audible.

The final book in the Gamers trilogy – CODERS – is now available in all formats.  I’m proud to be releasing the last book in the trilogy, and also a little bit sad.  I won’t be spending any more time with Gabby or her friends, and it was time I truly enjoyed.  I hope you readers have enjoyed it as much, and more, than I have.

When Gabby infiltrates the Southlands, reality becomes a dangerous game.

Desperate to reach Zaela before war erupts, Gabby takes a chance that puts her life in peril. She asks the Coders to send her into the Southlands as a spy, a request she quickly regrets. Now she faces a new enemy, one that knows everything about her and exposes her weaknesses in a game for her life. But before she can win, Gabby must wrestle with old wounds and finally come to grips with the person she was meant to be.

The novel can be purchased by e-book at Amazon, B&N, and Smashwords for $6.99, or as a paperback for $16.99.

A couple of years ago, when practically no one knew what augmented reality was, I put together a prediction about the future of augmented vision.  A recent development from the leader in augmented vision, Vuzix, made me realize my prediction might not be far off.

Engadget recently reported about the state of Vuzix’s AR vision line (taken from the floor of CES 2012.)

The end result is that Vuzix is promising a $350-600 AR vision line available in 2013.  This model is built off their military line used for creating the next generation of super-soldier.

So how well am I doing on my prediction?  Back in early 2009 I put together this info-graphic to show when we’d be seeing real augmented vision.

Some of the predictions are moving along and others are lagging.  It appears that AR glasses might be closer than I first thought, thanks to DARPA funding.  It’s still too early to tell how widespread usage might be or what could be done with them, but it’s still interesting to watch how my fictional worlds of The Digital Sea and Gamers might come to pass.  Hopefully, leveraging the wonders of Moore’s Law, we see them sooner rather than later.

The second book in the Gamers trilogy — Frags — is now available just in time for the holidays.  If you haven’t read the first book in the Gamers trilogy, go pick up a copy now at your favorite retailer.  The trilogy has been compared to a cross between the Hunger Games and the Uglies trilogy by many reviewers and readers.

When the Frags escape to the Freelands, they find freedom has its own challenges.

Without the familiar rules of LifeGame, Gabby and the Frags stumble from one dangerous Freeland to the next, while conflict in the group threatens to split them up. As the trail to Zaela becomes confused by the looming war, Gabby must reinvent herself or never see her best friend again.

The novel can be purchased by e-book at Amazon, B&N and Smashwords for $4.99, or as a paperback for $13.99.

In my Gamers trilogy people use auto-driving FunCars to get around while playing augmented reality games along the way.  The cars can be customized to look like anything you want them to.  The Toyota Fun-Vii concept video seems like a trailer right out of a Gamers movie.

Mmm…art.  The best art is the kind you can stare at while it memorizes you.  Enjoy.

Dev Harlan – “Parmenides I”, 2011 from Dev Harlan on Vimeo.

Mirror Shards author Louise Herring-Jones recently attended the World Fantasy Convention.  She brought along copies of Mirror Shards to sell and even gave a copy to award winning Science Fiction author, David Brin.  He was gracious enough to take a picture with the book.  Doesn’t that cover look gorgeous!  And thanks David and Louise!  I couldn’t make the convention, but having the book there taking glamour shots was the next best thing.

Despite all the research, the blog articles written, novels penned and ideas considered, I’m still regularly amazed by the quality of the videos about augmented reality.  I’ve been meaning to do this post for a while, but a recent AR martial arts video reminded me–I Must Post It Now!  Otherwise, I would be depriving an interested audience of this Cornucopia of Awesomeness(tm).  In no particular order, I present “10 Mind Blowing Augmented Reality Videos.”

1) Martial Arts

2) Domestic Robocop

3) Stark HUD2020

4) Ski Goggles

5) Transcendenz

Transcendenz from Michaël Harboun on Vimeo.

6) Realite Augmentee

Réalité Augmentée by KETCHUP-MAYONNAISE

 7) OutRun: Driving Game

Kitty Ears

9) If Minority Report Was Our Twisted Reality

10) Feed

(Keep in mind these videos are concepts, but I see no reason why the technology can’t make them happen…just give it time.)

One major allure of writing near-future science fiction novels is that the technology is right over the horizon.  So near you can almost reach out and grab it with your ape-like hands make magic happen.  Every year the technology that makes up the collective writings about augmented reality I call “The Digital Sea” moves closer and closer to reality.  After watching this video, I felt like the technology had taken another huge step forward.  It’s not commercially available yet, but it’s certainly possible.

And if that video intrigues you, stop by Amazon and pick up a copy of The Digital Sea or Gamers.