Category: Writing

Contagious

Nobody in my circle of friends talks about Covid anymore, except to say how many times they’ve had it.

I haven’t felt left out. I had Type B Influenza during the same timeframe. I was sure I would die. That’s relevant.

Thursday morning I went to the dentist. That afternoon I felt terrible. Linda administered a home test kit, and we have a winner in the reverse lottery.

The dentist wasn’t worried. I respect that, although his staff might have had second thoughts if they’d had to take care of me. Not as bad as the flu, but bad enough.

I sweated it out last night. This morning, I went outside. Linda is washing the bed linens, again. According to prevailing etiquette, I will be judged free of contagion by tomorrow.

Is that like, first thing tomorrow, or do I have to wait until noon?

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Contested

A solicitation for a First Chapter writing contest caused me to restart work on a Ghosts of Ancient Vidura follow-on — now at eight chapters, too sketchy to submit to a competition much less post any of it on my website, although that’s what I’m about to do.

Why? Because feedback is valuable, and one never knows where it’ll lead. As to the contest in question, even if the manuscript was ready-for-reading, terms of service didn’t stipulate sharing of judges’ notes with authors. Feedback is unlikely. I’ll save my twenty dollars for a better offer, but thanks for making me start writing again.

Meanwhile, I was curious enough to read the submissions of prior contest winners and runners-up, a reminder not to care a whole lot about what publishing gatekeepers are looking for in works of fiction. Thematically, not what I’m doing. In terms of voice, the experience left me uncertain about my approach.

I don’t wax lyrical in early chapters. I could. I know how to do it, but I don’t. In my view, and that of many authors, opening lines are best dedicated to arrival at the inciting event. Tell the reader what the grass smells like after you’ve dragged him into the story.

Here's my sketchy first chapter, first draft. The book is yet untitled. What do you think? Should this passage be more evocative? Tell me in the comments.
Continue reading “Contested” →
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Uncommon

I haven’t been an avid consumer of entertainment since I started writing, partly because I don’t want other authors’ stories in my head during the process. But there’s also the matter of what to consume — in that the quality of legacy media appears to be on the decline.

Essayist Derek Thompson (Is America Really Running Out of Original Ideas, The Atlantic, December 2021) proposes that the sorry state of the movie industry is founded not in a poverty of creativity but rather upon market dynamics that no longer reward innovation. To wit, the public patronizes familiar stories above all others, giving Hollywood motivation to publish a tedious litany of remakes.

But Hollywood no longer has a monopoly on filmic art, and Amazon has revolutionized book publishing. We are bombarded with content from every direction, and the challenge for a consumer seeking original, creative and uncommon entertainment is how to find it.

Continue reading “Uncommon” →
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Sci-Fi for those who don’t read Sci-Fi

The eBook edition of my latest novel is free today and tomorrow, February 9 &10 — an opportunity to try something completely different, whether or not you’re a follower of the genre.

Ghosts of Ancient Vidura is literary science fiction — action, adventure, and family drama against an SF landscape, with an underlying theme about what it takes to create a successful life. About the series, readers have said, “There’s nothing like it” and “Something for everybody”.

Helpful hint — If you’re not a fan of SF, the book really shifts gears in Part Two. But don’t skip. You’ll miss something important.

Elevator pitch — The year is 2025, and the aliens have arrived. Officially, not counting twenty-five-thousand years of under-the-table commerce, a secret that can no longer be kept.

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Validated

On February 2, following the launch of my novel Ghosts of Ancient Vidura, I wallpapered social media and then waited for those signs of acceptance one gets when generating his own publicity.

I sold an eBook the first day, and picked up a customer on Kindle Unlimited the next.

It’s impossible to know from KENP how many readers are engaged. Amazon lists the book at 381 pages, an average based on Kindle’s various presentation formats. I see 401 pages read since yesterday. I’m not famous. Let’s agree it’s one person who read the book in two days. The KU subscription motivates readers to give up on books they don’t enjoy, so I’ll take this one as an endorsement.

And then I received a lovely message from a lady who spotted my announcement on Retalk. She’s now reading Elbert, the first book in the AjJivadi trilogy. She said, “You have an engaging style. The book is intelligent and nuanced while still being easy/fun to read.”

So, that makes three new readers and fan mail in the first week. Woohoo!

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Launch Day

Ghosts of Ancient Vidura went live this morning.

An invasion tale with an original twist!

The year is 2025, and the aliens have arrived. Officially, not counting twenty-five-thousand years of under-the-table commerce, a secret that can no longer be kept.

The Space Weather forecast calls for ‘Sunny to Partly Incinerated’. An ancient starship, previously in service as a sightseeing hotel, arrives with a disaster mitigation team. Our off-world patrons say there’ll be no exchange of technology. Behind the scenes, technology is offered. Diplomacy lurches forward.

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.

Meanwhile, at a furloughed missile launch site in Nevada, campsites pop up like mushrooms after a soaking rain. An AjJivadi workforce, long barred from Earth tourism, is going on vacation. The ghosts of ancient Vidura have returned.

All my titles are #kindleunlimited.

1

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.

0

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.

2

Edified — John Dyer Writes

After seven-or-so close edits, a flurry of readings, a handful of insights from a first reader, and countless additional flourishes, I thought this book might be ready. So, I worked on the cover (it needed more contrast) and ordered another three proof copies.

Then I realized I’d neglected an opportunity to describe a principal actor early in the narrative. I wrote …

The face of Henri Suraksin, Elbert’s Anye stepson, popped into augmented reality while Elbert was pulling into a parking space. Henri was Mahat Raja, a rare amalgam of the foxy lemur and bearlike lemur genotypes.

It was mid-afternoon at Henri’s location. He’d skipped lunch. Imagine a werewolf, eating donuts, washing them down with goat’s milk out of a sippy cup, appearance made even less fierce by powdered sugar on his nose. “I snuck another bodyguard into the building about an hour ago.”

If I hand out any of the proofs, I’ll have to say, “I made some changes, but it shouldn’t affect your enjoyment of the book.” By then, it will almost certainly be a lie.

When one starts an eBook draft on KDP, Amazon makes the author submit the title for pre-order. I chose February 1st. It WILL be done by then.

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