Month: January 2023

The Lonely Scribe

I’ve been brooding over how solitary my journey as a writer has been — and wondering if, among time-consuming activities, I might should have picked something more social to pursue in my later years.

Quite some time ago, I received an invitation to play bass in a praise band. The commitment required learning six songs a week. It’s a job. I retired from a job. I hadn’t planned to get another one.

Civic theater comes to mind, but it’s the same proposition, and the gentleman who volunteers at the museum is clearly bored out of his mind.

Dance classes. I like dancing. I used to disco like crazy, but I’d need to lose thirty-five pounds before signing up. What else is there; pickleball? Either way, let’s factor in the time it takes to recover from knee surgery.

Continue reading “The Lonely Scribe” →
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Submissible

There’s a new publishing imprint on the horizon, and although I’ve given up on being recognized by industry gatekeepers, my pitch needed some work. So, I submitted Ghosts of Ancient Vidura with a cover letter, which I’ve been editing ever since.

Yes, it’s too late to make a good impression in that venue, but someday I’ll figure out how to explain what I’m up to. This morning I wrote —

The Anye Universe novels are a nine-book series organized as three trilogies, relating events leading to an interstellar migration, and a twenty-five-thousand-year secret history of alien influence on Earth, revealed in modern times.

The books are literary science fiction, stories for grown-ups — action, adventure, and family drama against an SF landscape, with an underlying theme about what it takes to become a whole person and build a successful life. I’m reaching for ambitious, intelligent, epic. I’ve not forgotten it’s supposed to be entertaining.

Four installments have been published on Amazon KDP — numbers one through three and number seven. Ghosts of Ancient Vidura is number eight, currently scheduled for release February 1, 2023. Four more books are under development, at about 200,000 words.

You may have noticed that I published the series out of sequence. If so, good marks for comprehension — and by the way, you’re just the type I’m looking for. These books are not for lazy readers. You’ll find my tent pitched here.

Who knows, I might get a reading out of it, perhaps a few constructive comments. We'll see.

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Ghostly

Now available for pre-order. eBook and paperback launch on February 1st.

An alien invasion tale with an original twist!

The year is 2025, and the aliens have arrived. Officially, not counting twenty-five-thousand years of clandestine interspecies commerce, a secret that can no longer be kept. Earth’s sun will soon micro-nova unless the AjJivadi Constituency does something about it.

An ancient alien migration vessel, previously in service as a tourist hotel, arrives with a disaster mitigation team. A public relations campaign is launched. AjJivadi officials state there will be no exchange of technology. Behind the scenes, technology is offered. Diplomacy lurches forward.

Meanwhile, a human in Oregon experiences past-life emergence — recalling old Vidura and the science that was discovered there. In Washington DC, military authorities cook up plans to hijack spaceships. On Jivada, a sinister cabal maneuvers to rule the two planets. Millions of light years away, an unseen enemy stirs in its nest.

The situation is about to get complicated.

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In Memory

Teddy was ten weeks old the day we met him at foster care. There was so much joy in his eyes when I picked him up, I knew he wanted to be mine.

I don’t remember which of us spoiled him the most as a puppy, but as an adult, he’d always sleep in our bed curled into the pocket at the back of my knees. We thought it meant he was my dog.

He was 15 ½ years old In January. We’d fought his illness as a family for fourteen months. On Thursday, the veterinarian gave us a circular entitled, ‘How to know when it’s time.’

Linda took this photo while we were deciding what to do. She made the appointment on Saturday morning and we grieved for another two days. The pain was unbearable, but I don’t regret the time we spent letting him know how much he was loved.

We held him in our arms until the very last, tears flowing, breath caught in our throats. Linda kissed his face. I told him he was safe; his daddy was there; he could finally be free of suffering. When the veterinarian confirmed his heart was still, we allowed an attendant to take him from us.

He will never be separated from us in spirit. His full name was Theodore Von Fledermaus; from t’ adore, meaning ‘I adore you’. It was a good name for a sweet, loyal friend. We loved him. He loved us. We belonged together. We will always miss his presence in our lives.

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