Tuesday Trivia...better late than never (8/20/14)

Hey folks!

First, I apologize for not putting trivia on the blog last night! I forgot! It's a new school year, and I haven't updated for a while...

Second, let me thank all of you who visited the blog to check! This is a great place to find out important announcements, as well as earn some good bucks for Monday Math Facts and Tuesday Trivia. That being said, here's the first trivia of the year...

Today in Science, we were discussing how "air is dense, and has mass." Air is a mixture of gases, and some gases are heavier than others. That's why when you climb to the top of a 14,000 ft peak in CO, you can't breath very well! There's less oxygen!

So...my question is:
A. What is the tallest peak in Colorado?
B. What's the tallest peak in the continental United States?
C. What's the tallest peak in North America?

Get you answers in tomorrow morning to win a prize!

Mr. C

School Tour: Success!

Hey everyone,

During the week of April 8th, I toured to six different schools (four in CT, one in PA, one in MD) sharing fun and exciting space science with children. I'll have some videos to post soon.

Also, on April 17th, Shore Publishing published an article about me in their CT newspapers. You can find the online version here. There were a couple things the article mixed up, saying that the Braderwood Series will be a trilogy when, in actuality, it will be four books...and also saying that I'm 25 (which is my own fault for never updating my blog profile...oops!) Otherwise, I'm very happy with the article!

One other thing: Make sure to join the Braderwood Facebook page. You can find it by searching "Stanley Finnigan" or at www.facebook.com/stanleyfinnigan. I do MUCH more updating there, as well as some give-aways and other contests.

The next Facebook contest will be on May 2nd...the one year publication anniversary of Stanley Finnigan.

Enjoy!

Dan

Braderwood Series east coast book tour!

Hey everyone!

I'm really excited to announce I will be visiting some elementary and middle schools in the north east this April. I'll be visiting six schools in CT, PA, and MD...and meeting over 1,000 kids!

The presentations are mostly about space science...there will be some book giveaways, as well!

If you'd like me to visit your school, use the email section at the top of the page to get in touch!

This April and then again in the summer, I'll also be working hard on book three to get that ready for the end of the year.

Check facebook for more frequent updates!

Dan

Bryan Jefferson and the Neuroverse...it's here!

Hey everyone!

I'm holding the first copy of Bryan Jefferson and the Neuroverse! It looks great. Thanks again to everyone that helped with the second installment in the Braderwood series. It will be available on amazon.com in the next couple of days...check in here, or on facebook, for an official release notice!

Happy Holidays!

Bryan Jefferson and the Neuroverse release date!

Hey everyone!

If you've been following my Facebook, you are well aware that Bryan Jefferson and the Neuroverse, the second book in the Braderwood series, comes out soon! To be more exact...it should be available on amazon.com by Thursday!

Be sure to check in here or on Facebook (Stanley Finnigan and the Race Around the Universe page) for an official notice that the book is available! Get your copy before the holidays! The Facebook page also has a picture of the cover, so be sure to take a look!

Happy Holidays!

Dan

Book two title release and cover release

Hey everyone!

Just to let you know, I am releasing the title of the second installment in the Braderwood series tomorrow evening! Check in to the Stanley Finnigan and the Race Around the Universe facebook page to find out what it is. Or, you can wait a few more days and I will release the title as well as the cover on this blog!

At the moment, the targeted release date for the second book is December 16th...just in time for the holidays! Make sure to pick up your copy on amazon.com! The kindle version will be released shortly after (but I'm not sure if that will be ready for the holidays.)

And, of course, if you haven't read Stanley, be sure to pick up your copy so you can cruise through it and pick up the second book!

Dan

FACEBOOK CONTESTS!

Hey everyone!

As promised, every week until the title release on the 30th of November, I will be doing a contest on the Stanley Finnigan facebook page. Every week, one winner will win one of the first FREE SIGNED COPIES of the sequel! So if you haven't joined the facebook page, now would be a great time! And bring your friends!

This week's contest is: The first person to get five friends to join (and post who invited them so I know) will win a free signed copy.

Good luck! I'm getting very excited for the title, cover, and ACTUAL release of the sequel!

Dan

Book Two: Title Announcement Date and Release Date

Hey everyone!

Things are really moving along with the sequel to Stanley Finnigan. My very talented artist is working on the cover and my editors are working on the draft. I plan on releasing the title of the second book on Friday, November 30th! Artwork will come shortly after, and I hope to have the book available before the holiday season!

Stay tuned for more information! And please, if you haven't checked out Stanley yet, see why it's the #7 children's science fiction novel by average review on amazon.com...and why it has 25 five-star reviews!

If you've read it, make sure YOU review it, too!

Stanley Finnigan on amazon.com

Updates

Hey everyone,

I know, I know...I haven't been posting much. I've been very busy! The Baltimore Book Festival went swimmingly...thanks to everyone who came out and got their very own copy of Stanley. If you haven't noticed, I've been getting a lot of reviews on amazon from happy customers...23 reviews, 22 of which are five stars!

I'm on a break from work now, so I'm doing as much editing on book two as possible. I'm hoping to release the title in the next few weeks and have the book out by New Year's. So be on the look-out!

On a non-book related note, since I'm on break I am looking forward to doing some pre-winter hiking. I'll be updating the blog with some 14er hikes and other hikes soon if you want to see some great Colorado pictures!

More fun stuff to come soon,

Dan

I'm back! Baltimore Book Festival, reviews

Hey everyone!

I need to do a better job of keeping up with everything! A week from tomorrow is the Baltimore Book Festival...come visit the tent and get your copy of Stanley!

Stanley hit his 13th 5-star review today, putting the book at 30th by average customer rating on amazon.com. Maybe you should read it and see if you agree! If you HAVE read it, please do me the honor of reviewing it on amazon and help get the word out about Stanley!

I start a break during October, and hope to get book two edited and ready to go to the editing team...still hoping to have it published by New Year's, but it will take a lot of hard work.

That's it for now! I can't wait to see if my turn-out at Baltimore is as awesome as it was in Denver!

Dan

Taste of Colorado...check. Next stop...

...the Baltimore Book Festival!

A Taste of Colorado was a huge success. Almost 200 happy readers walked away with Stanley Finnigan in their hands. I hope they love it!

Now the Baltimore Book Festival is just a short 17 days away. I will be there on Friday, September 28th in the author's tent for the whole day! Come by and visit, and you'll have a chance to win free signed copies! Just ask the Denver folks...you've got a great chance to win!

I look forward to visiting Baltimore again, were I lived in 2008-2010. Hopefully more readers will walk away with a copy of the book! See you there!

Then...October can't come soon enough. School has been CRAZY to start the year, and so book two (title to be announced soon) has been put on the back-burner for quite some time. I'll have to do some SERIOUS editing to get through it and have it ready by the new year, but I think it can be done! Here's hoping!

See you in Baltimore,

Dan

A Taste of Colorado!

It's finally here!

A Taste of Colorado is a huge festival in downtown Denver, CO. Food vendors, live music, art, games, events for kids, and all kinds of awesomeness goes on from Friday through Monday.

You can come find me there! I will be selling signed copies of Stanley Finnigan and, if you're "space-savvy," you might just walk away with a free copy of the book!

So come by, say hi to me, pick up your copy of Stanley, and enjoy the weekend!

ALL THE BOOKS ARE IN!

YES!

Taste of Colorado is coming up this Labor Day Weekend...and I just got my big shipment of books! Here's a picture of me (don't judge, I just came from volleyball) with eleven boxes loaded with books! Good times.

Check out my Facebook page (search Stanley Finnigan) or my twitter (@StanleyFinnigan) to get a chance to win your FREE SIGNED copy TOMORROW!

Hooray books!

I'm Back!

Sort of.

It's been a while, I know. What's been going on with Dan?

Well, the new school year started. I've been busy busy busy getting my new group of students to work. They're great, though! Being a teacher can take up a lot of your normal blog time, though.

I've been getting ready for A Taste of Colorado, happening in Denver of Labor Day weekend. Come visit! Get a new copy of Stanley and meet me!

I moved into a new house recently, which is exciting. Yay washer-dryer!

I also started a blog for my class, and have been posting a lot of cool science links to it. What? You want to see them too? Well, of course you do! Check out some of this awesome NASA stuff:

Images from the Cassini Saturn Probe:

Cassini Saturn

Images from the Hubble Space Telescope:

Hubble Space Telescope

That's all for now. I've unfortunately had to put book two on the back burner for a while, but hope to jump back into editing once things calm down at work a little bit. Still ambitiously hoping to get it released by the New Year!

Oh, and east coasters can come find me on Friday, September 28th at the Baltimore Book Festival!

Dan Cuoco

Stanley Finnigan's new cover!

Check it out!

I'm very excited to share the image of this amazing wrap-around cover created by Sarah Barth. Check out her stuff on Facebook (search Sarah Barth Images) or here: http://www.artdistrictonsantafe.com/members/sarahbarth

Sarah is a very talented artist/photographer in the Denver area and was kind enough to take on this project for me. So...take a look at the cover, leave your comments, and get your NEW copy of the book! Still available on amazon.com and the Kindle...or you can come and find me at A Taste of Colorado or at the Baltimore Book Festival!

Writing sidebar: hiking

So, my summer break is wrapping up and I spent the last couple of weeks putting the sequel aside and doing some more outdoorsy things. I've done a lot of mountain biking, volleyball tournaments, and days in the park. Last Thursday, I spent the day hiking "The Decalibron," which is a 8 mile round-trip hike in the Mosquito Range. Democrat, Cameron, Lincoln, and Bross mountains are four 14,000 ft peaks you summit during the hike!

Here are some pictures from the hike:

Sunrise in the valley

Sunrise over Kite Lake

Summit of Democrat

Summit of Lincoln

Summit of Bross


So, I have a week left of my break...time to do some more mountain biking! Check in soon for some book two updates and maybe some more pictures from the rockies!

The Universe is a BIG place.

Hey folks,

If you ever follow my twitter or facebook, you know that I'm VERY excited for the new season of "How the Universe Works" on the Science channel. It's one of my favorite shows ever, and has always given me a lot of ideas for Braderwood books...it also gives me a starting place to check some of my facts.

The new season starts today, July 11th. Here's a nice little clip from last season:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmWNs4QrshY

That clip, on youtube, is about star and galaxy size. Some of the numbers are incredible. Betelgeuse, one of the stars they talk about, is so big that it's diameter would stretch all the way out to Jupiter if it was in our own solar system! That's 1,500,000,000 times bigger than our own sun!

Galaxies are even crazier. Our galaxy is believed to have 100-200 BILLION stars. That's a lot...but then, consider the other ones that are two, three...ten...fifty times the size of our own. And astronomers believe there are 200 billion galaxies out there...and that's all we know of! That number is probably changing every day as we can see further and further into the Universe. In fact, just ten years ago, astronomers only thought there were 4 billion stars in our galaxy.

Recap...100-200 billion stars in our 100,000 light-year-across galaxy.

Oh, right. That brings me to light years. Light travels at approximately 186,000 miles a second. A SECOND! That comes out to about 671 million miles an hour...or about 6 TRILLION MILES A YEAR!

Finally, let's talk a little bit about numbers. People hear numbers like million and billion all the time...but often don't appreciate just how astronomically large those numbers are. Let's do a little experiment, shall we?

Take a pen and tap it on the desk as fast as you can for ten seconds. (As the example, I did it 70 times in ten seconds. You may be a little faster, but I had to pay attention to my watch.)

You've inherited some super-powers that allow you to tap the pen at that same exact rate without experiencing fatigue, the need to sleep...to ever stop.

Here's how the numbers would crunch:
70 times in ten seconds
x6 is 420 times a minute
x60 is 25,200 times in an hour...wow! great job. You'll be there in no time.
x24 is 604,800 in a full day
x365.25 is 220,903,200 in a full year
at that rate, it would take you approximately 4.5 straight years of your life to tap it a billion times!
and a trillion? Well, a trillion is 1,000 TIMES a billion...so it would take you 4,500 years to reach a trillion!

Looking back at our numbers, if each time you tapped your pen, you were counting a star in our galaxy, it would take you about 450 - 900 years to count each one. And that's just one galaxy out of the 200 billion we know of.

And finally, light travels 6 trillion miles a year...remember, trillion is that number that would take you 4,500 years to tap out...and our galaxy is 100,000 LIGHT YEARS across...600,000 trillion miles!

So, anyway...I hope you enjoyed the lesson. The Universe is BIG. REALLY BIG. In fact, most of it is empty space between all of those huge galaxies, accumulating in what is estimated to be 3x10^23 (that's a 3 with 23 zeros after it) stars in our 92 billion light year wide OBSERVABLE universe.

People LOVE free stuff.

Alright,

It was a very successful book giveaway day on the 7th! A TON of copies were downloaded on Kindle for free. I couldn't be happier to celebrate my birthday by getting Stanley in the hands of so many people...I just hope I get some reviews and ratings out of it!

Aside from that...still waiting to hear from another agent and I've put down book two for about a week now to "rest" a bit before diving in for some editing. Also, I am anxiously awaiting artwork from my friend Sarah.

I celebrated my birthday with a bunch of friends here in Denver. We had a belated Fourth of July party...my friend, who is the best bbq'r I've ever known, made us some delicious food. We played all kinds of yard games and volleyball, and I made a GIANT JENGA set. It was a great day/night!

As a reminder, I'll be at A Taste of Colorado over Labor Day weekend (end of August) and then the Baltimore Book Festival on September 28th. Come out and visit! You may have a chance to win a free paperback edition of Stanley and there may be some stuff to reveal about the second book...

Stanley Finnigan FREE all day July 7th!

Hey folks,

Just a quick update...my birthday is July 8th, and to celebrate, I'm giving away Stanley Finnigan FREE all day on the Kindle tomorrow, July 7th! It's also now free to borrow on Kindle prime. Enjoy! And happy birthday to me!

EXCITING sequel news!

Well, it's official!

Today I finished the first draft of the sequel to Stanley Finnigan and the Race Around the Universe. I'm now entering the flesh out/edit phase before sending it off to my outstanding editing team!

It's looking like the book will definitely be ready by the end of the year.

Stay tuned for the official title release, along with some new artwork!