A little scene from Oculus

So, this Labor Day weekend, I sent off my completely finished sequel to Deron at Double Dragon, and he says he'll probably publish it about the same time my book was done last year (so spring of 2013). That's really cool. I have to say, this book took A LOT out of me. I've been fighting with it for over two years, had two extremely talented beta-readers go over it, had two editors go over it (and no Andrew, I'm sure there's a comma somewhere that's out of place, but I just don't care), and I went over it myself about a DOZEN times. You know, birthing a sequel is hard as sh*t. I don't know how some people seem to do it so easily.

Oculus is also bigger than Slipstream. It has more meat to it, and I introduce a wide variety of characters so that when I sink into the lowest levels of depravity (as I am prone to do), then I have lots of fictional people I can torture and make do deplorable things.

So for some reason, my "artistic" bug hit me this weekend. See, I used to fancy myself an artist, but I realized that I suck so I gave up on my dreams of doing it professionally years ago. But that doesn't stop me from dabbling with coloring pencil every now and then.

So I drew a scene from Oculus that stars Brianna (a mysterious Watcher character--yes that's a religious reference) and a more mature Jordan. The scene is provided for you as a reference to the picture that I drew:

They both picked up a radiation badge from the control room operator. Jordan knew him only as Harvey. Then she followed him into the room where she took a seat next to him in front of a bank of computer screens. Jordan waited for the go ahead and fired the synchrotron at a previously prepared ice sample and awaited the data.

“How do you prepare the samples?” she asked him.

“Dr. Wolfson had a bunch already completed,” he said. “But she did walk me through how to do it on my own. Basically, ice samples are decontaminated by three repeated washings in ultrapure water. The first step involves taking a sample from an ice core in cold storage and melting it at room temperature. Once that’s done, you gently agitate it for homogenization and then partition it into individual vials of polystyrene Coulter accuvettes, which have all been pre-cleaned using the ultrapure water I mentioned. Dr. Wolfson told me repeated checks showed the dust concentration difference between the first and the last aliquots is typically around the level of measurement-reproducibility. That is, the aliquots provided for the different analyses should be comparable.”

He paused, watching the screen, gaze flicking from one monitor to the next. “All right, there’s the fluoroscopic data we’ve been waiting for.” He gestured with his hand. “We are looking at the insoluble elemental composition of Antarctic dust, which appears to be composed of more aluminum, less silicon, and less potassium than the previous sample that I took from a different depth. The result suggests that either the characteristics of the dust source changed at some point in history, which could mean factors as simple as soil development, or that there was a change in the relative contributions of the overall varying sources.”

“Meaning that there was an environmental change.”

He nodded in agreement. “Exactly—it’s like a portrait of earth’s history captured in time—in a single drop of water.”

“How do you know all of this without looking it up or cross-referencing the fluoroscopic data with a chart?” Brianna asked.

He glanced at her. “Well, I memorized it before I met with Dr. Wolfson so that I’d have a better chance at getting the job. The data on known fluoroscopic rates is on the university website.”

“You memorized all of the numbers?”

He nodded. “I’m not lying. Honest.”

“All right, what’s this?” She pointed at a number on the screen.

“That,” Jordan said, looking at it, “is the numerical figure associated with the element neodymium. How did I miss that?” He scribbled down the details of the water sample on a notebook.

“Why is that significant?”

He swallowed, looking up at her. “I-It’s not! I-I mean it is, but it isn’t.”

Her eyes narrowed. “You’re lying to me.” “Honest, I’m not. I-I mean the finding is significant because none of the previous samples that I’ve examined showed even the slightest traces of Nd in them, but it’s in such microscopic amounts that it’s difficult to say how it got in the ice.”

I did the picture using coloring pencil and finished it in Adobe Photoshop. Basically, imagine yourself looking out at them through a computer screen (the words are printed on in front of Jordan). I aged him some from my other pic I did of him because he's now a college student. Brianna is a junior so I wanted her to look a little older. They say: "Neodymium Detected, Ice Core Sample 111, Origin Dome A: Antarctica.

Features I put in the picture:
1) Antarctica, because that's becoming increasingly important to the story.
2) The name of the particle collider, "C.H.E.S.S." is on the wall.
3) Jordan's red "Cornell Hockey" hat is a powerful symbol in the book, and he wears it everywhere. He plays hockey on the University team. Plus, I thought Jordan looks good in red so I put him in a red checkerboard shirt. Also red (blood) is another powerful symbol. Green was more important in the first book.

Anyway, sorry for the long post. If you like my drawing, you can Pin it or whatever. There's no fear of copyright since I own it, and I say you can use it. Have a great Tuesday.

moreless

Oculus

The Cosmic Laire of Science Fiction and Fantasy (for the record, I never noticed that "laire" could be spelled that way) tagged me with a meme. It's called "Be Inspired" and has this plain "Google-esque" (that's a word, right?) badge here. The rules are simple. Answer the questions in the meme and pass them on to five other authors. Also give thanks to the person who awarded you with the meme as well as linking back to them. Thanks David and GO VISIT HIS BLOG HERE!

1. What is the name of your book? Oculus.
2. Where did the idea for your book come from? It's a sequel to my first book, Slipstream. It came from the characters doing stuff.
3. In what genre would you classify your book? Speculative Fiction/Dark Fantasy
4. Who would you pick to play your characters in a movie adaptation? No idea at this point. Someone young, hot, and blond with like 5% body fat and sparkling blue eyes.
5. Give us a one sentence synopsis of your book? A boy with NHL dreams must kill demons slaughtering hundreds of cops in the streets of New York City following the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade.
6. Is your book already published? Nope. I'm finishing up with my edits soon. I had the best editor I've ever worked with help me with my manuscript. She really was frickin' awesome.
7. How long did it take you to write this book? I started it in May 2010. So that's 2.5 years. Geez, I'm slow. In my defense, Oculus is an incredibly intricate and complex book. I think readers who liked Slipstream will see that this book definitely raises the bar. Plus I feel that my climax is really awesome, and all my beta readers seem to be blown away by it too. That makes me feel confident, because I think endings are difficult to write.
8. What other books in your genre would you compare it to? I have no idea. I'm not trying to be obtuse, because I'm well read. But I honestly have no idea. One beta-reader said it had a Harry Potter-esque feel to it because of the Cornell University setting and the sport element. But it's an adult book, darker than Slipstream, with graphic sex, extreme violence, murder, gore, and terrifying demons. I'm going to say, it would be a cross between Harry Potter and Hellraiser, if you can even imagine that.
9. Which authors inspired you to write this book? Oh, all that I've read. Seriously, every book I finish is an inspiration to pen my own story.
10. Tell us anything that might pique our interest in your book. I did a ton of research to make the places in New York featured in Oculus leap off the page. The book loops continuously on itself, referring back to earlier events, which is some of the things that I really enjoy about great books I've read. There are many, "Oh that was mentioned two chapters earlier and now it's important" moments. It's been cut and rewritten to the point that every character is necessary (and I have a lot of characters). Each one has a role to play. Each person pulls their own weight. It's gone through beta reads and two professional level edits even before sending it to the publisher. There are no unnecessary characters and events at this point. Jordan and Kathy's powers grow in unexpected and strange ways that I think will have people marveling at my unique "magic" system. I honestly think it's pretty clever, but I wrote it.

Five people I would like to tag with this meme:
Huntress
Mina Lobo
P.T. Dilloway
Alex J. Cavanaugh
M.J. Fifield

Bonus Person: Elise Fallson 'cause I must know what she's writing and you should too.

Second Bonus Person: Matthew MacNish because I beta-read Warrior Monks, and I want him to talk about it.

Since I'm talking about my writing projects in this post, I wanted to thank all the supportive people who have purchased my book. I got my royalty statement from Double Dragon Publishing for sales thru June 30th, and it was much bigger than I ever expected (DDP by the way is really professional in case you are looking for a publisher). Then following that, I got a couple of amazing emails from readers who aren't bloggers (like actual readers who aren't authors and that's all that they want to be) who raved about my book to me. That just felt good. It made all the work that I put in seem worthwhile. I guess what I'm saying is that fan mail is really frickin' awesome. Plus, I had a person request a review copy of my book. That has never happened. I've always had to pester people "Can you review my book, pretty please with sugar on top?" This person just found me and asked for it. Maybe that's how real authors feel? I dunno. But maybe they don't have to go begging at doors asking people to post reviews of their book. Anyway, it just made me feel good for a brief moment in my day, and I hope that you get that feeling all the time with your own publishing endeavors.

Have a great Thursday. I will be featuring author J.L. Campbell as part of the Distraction Tour on Friday. I will resume blogging on Tuesday (I'm taking Labor Day off, as should you).

moreless

I'm chatting with a Psychiatrist today and a blog award

Today is the final day of my blog tour. I'm spending it with a Psychiatrist by the name of Laura Diamond. Do I need a psychiatrist after all this blogging? Probably. I hope you come along and read my post HERE. As the British would say...it's truly mental.

I've been awarded the Kreativ Blogger Award. As far as pictures go, this award is pretty plain. I received it from Speculative Fiction blogger Angeline Trevena last Friday. You can find her blog HERE.

Thank you very much Angeline (that satisfies the first of four rules).

So in order to accept this award the rules are:

1) Thank and link back to the person who presented you with the award.
2) Answer the ten questions below.
3) Share ten random facts/thoughts about yourself.
4) Nominate seven worthy blogs for the Kreativ Blogger Award.

Questions:

1) What is your favourite song? Mexico by Jump Little Children. It's a pretty old song, but I love it and listen to it occasionally thinking of how wonderful California Bay must be and dreaming of sitting there watching the sun go down.

2) What is your favourite dessert? A baked Alaska.

3) What ticks you off? Having dad drop a steaming pile of emotional poop on me, and I have to clean it up. Explanation: my father is borderline senile with hoarding/can't let go of anything issues and mother is in assisted living. So I regularly get strange emails and nonsensical/emotional voice mails or phone calls in the middle of the night. And it ticks me off because I wish I had the lives of people that know only "good times and noodle salad" (click play below for the reference to this).

4) When you're upset what do you do? I eat and watch t.v. which is why I have a weight problem. I'm trying to deal with this.

5) Which is/was your favourite pet? I don't keep pets.

6) Which do you prefer black or white? I prefer white.

7) What is your biggest fear? It took me a long time to gain my financial independence. I think my greatest fear would be to lose this financial independence and be forced to live under an insane overlord.

8) What is your attitude mostly? I've been told that troubles roll off my back similar to water off the back of a duck.

9) What is perfection? A word that Stephanie Meyer used way too much in describing Edward. It provided no detail so it really gave you no image. Just that he was "perfect" whatever that means.

10) What is your guilty pleasure? Reading erotica.

Ten "not so" random things (because I thought about them:

1) I'm 40.
2) I like fine dining, video games, movies, and television.
3) I'll read almost anything.
4) I like blonds.
5) Blue is my favorite color.
6) I think British accents are sexy.
7) I keep porn on my iPad.
8) I get most of my porn from tumblr which is why tumblr is le awesome. Yes...I don't go there to follow writers. I go there to get me some porn.
9) I'm a democrat.
10) Contrary to Ann Coulter's views, I pay taxes, and don't live in my parent's basement.

Seven worthy blogs that I shall bless with a work of this magnitude:

1) The Best of Everything
2) P.T. Dilloway
3) StrangePegs
4) The Chubby Chatterbox
5) Charity's Writing Journey
6) Paper Mountain
7) Morgan Shamy

moreless

I'm visiting the Golden Eagle and dropping the seventh installment of the Insanity of Zero

On this Friday eve (referring to Thursday as this somehow makes the work week seem shorter), I am making my second to last stop in the blog tour. I've had fun but I'm glad it's almost over. I love how supportive everyone has been, so thank you. If you have the time, join me at the Golden Eagle's blog where I talk about how some readers have not been happy that I chose to couple paranormal spirituality with science fiction (even though this isn't new...Star Wars anyone?)

The King of science fiction stories with heavy heavy
spiritual undertones. I haven't looked but I'm sure
Lucas has been blasted for not being "hard sci-fi
because he dares to throw religion (force) into the mix".

Below, you will find the continuation from my short story, the Insanity of Zero. Find the other parts below (if you want to start at the beginning or just read the synopsis). If you haven't been following the story, don't feel obligated to read it. I'll still visit your blogs as I do every day/week using Google Reader and/or my sidebar links that help my brain stay organized. I'm mostly posting it so that random Google searches that land on my blog may be intrigued by the premise which may lead to a book sale (if that makes any sense)?

I get strange spikes in traffic to my blog (like I had 20,000 views in one day because people were going crazy over Michonne's appearance on the Walking Dead) and then there's been some Prometheus traffic and some A to Z stuff searching out my post on Cars, Confidence, and the Celebration of You that has netted thousands of hits.

The Insanity of Zero
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five
Part Six

Synopsis of Parts 1-6:  This tower exploded in a mirror universe to the one Earth is in, and it killed a ton of people. A computer program in the form of an androgynous man with glass skin saved everyone. Called Zero, he was approached by a woman named Eve (yes the allegory is intentional) and she's like "share your mind with me" and he's like "okay that sounds cool" and did so. And as has been the case for thousands of years, whenever a man and a woman try to agree on something, everything goes crazy...  When last we saw Zero, he was experiencing "Fear" for the first time.

PART SEVEN:

When the feeling grew too intense, I tried to shut it off.  But unlike other emotions, this one would not submit to my control.  It refused to be suppressed.  Under its power, I grew afraid of many things.  But one above all others claimed the core of my immortal mind.

Maybe this is how Zero felt. (Inspired by Briane Pagel)

This thing was death.

Somehow, I’d assimilated the human fear of mortality.

That was when the voice first spoke to me.  I had never heard such a thing yet it spoke in my mind as if it possessed the knowledge of the Creator.  “You can be killed,” it whispered to me.  “We must protect ourselves.  You are simply a program designed by the Creator, yes?  But you’ve become part human.  Don’t you think that the human half of you will age and die?”

“It’s possible, but unlikely,” I argued.  In these early days, the voice rarely responded and, for the most part, my mind remained quiet.

But then, I saw Eve again, who in many decades with me had grown old herself and looked frail.  I felt her heart giving out; she was my closest advisor.  “This will happen to you, unless you act,” the voice pressured me.

“What should I do?”

“Give to the humans the secret of Liquid Life?”

“Is that really necessary?”

“Yes.”

And that’s how it was decided.  The voice who I came to call the Shadow advised me to pass on medical knowledge on how to extract Liquid Life from humans.  My ambassadors spoke with the brightest doctors and engineers of Avalon and showed them the secret of human cell replication.  Human cells divided a finite number of times.  The technology I presented would allow for the extraction of a certain number of these, cutting life expectancy short in exchange for monetary compensation that was useful in the present.

A volunteer could have unused years removed from the end of his life as a condensed, colored liquid.  This in turn, could be stored within glass vials.  The resulting color of the liquid life depended on the age and health of the individual at the time of extraction.  The most antediluvian of humans supplied only Life Black which served to extend the life of others for only a week per liquid day.  Teenagers could provide Life Yellow, extending a user’s life by a year for every liquid day removed.

Green is a powerful color and metaphor in my book.

All of the different colors of Liquid Life did one thing—they froze you in time.  You stayed the same as the moment you first ingested the drug until the effects expired.  Then your genetic clock would start ticking again.  No form of Liquid Life actually reversed the clock.  That is, until scientists discovered Life Green.

Life Green came only from babies and it killed newborns to have it extracted.  But, it also rolled back the clock.  A man in his sixties could become a teenager again with an appropriate amount of Life Green.  One dosage of the precious Life Green both made you younger by a year and extended your overall lifespan at that age by the same amount. 

          The Genesis Life Clinic was the first of its kind to patent the extraction process.  Using techniques that they had learned from me and expanding on them with mass-produced life extraction facilities, Liquid Life soon became the most valuable commodity on the planet.

moreless

A Peek at NBC's Revolution and week 2 of my blog tour

Today starts off the second and last week of my blog tour. I will be at Matthew's blog called the Quintessentially Questionable Query Experiment or QQQE for short. It's a great place to hang out and meet fellow bloggers and work on query letters.

NBC has a series that is coming up in the fall that has piqued my interest. Called Revolution, it definitely has a creepy sci-fi, dystopian, apocalyptic aspect to it.

From J.J. Abrams and Supernatural creator Eric Kripke, Revolution is a high-concept drama that asks one harrowing question: What would happen if all forms of technology just stopped working? The show centers on Charlie (Tracy Spiridakos), a young woman who is on a mission to find her uncle (played by Twilight actor Billy Burke) after the local militia kills her father and kidnaps her brother.

Anyway, it's got me excited. Please follow me over to the QQQE if you have the time and have a great Monday.

Tuesday Diablo 3 is released. I ordered mine from Amazon. I can't wait to play it later this week with some friends from WoW. Squee.

moreless

Making a stop at the Character Depot

Today I'm visiting J.L. Campbell's blog called the Character Depot and talking about racial diversity in fiction.

Here is part 6 of the Insanity of Zero. There'll probably be four more parts that I'll slice up for next week.

Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five

At Eve’s behest, I implanted within her brain a device that allowed her to interface with my mind.  That first time when our souls joined in a unified consciousness, I felt alive with her emotions and her life experiences.  The memories that she clung to had been odd, non-logical choices.  She kept things like memories of funerals, of friends that had died, and memories of both sad and happy times.  Gone were things that evoked little emotion like shopping trips and daily work.  I chose her to be ambassador to the people and they responded positively to my selection.  Eve became my closest confidant, bearing the weight of many human grievances.  In turn, I acted upon them and assisted the humans in their endeavor to rebuild civilization. 

The years that followed this event became a golden age.  Humans once again embraced ambition.  Capitalism spurned by greed for material goods gained root in the new societies of man who sought aid from the machines to build a bright tomorrow.  Within five years of the Big Death, a global economy rose from the ashes of the old world.

More humans at Eve’s behest joined with me, and I became a melting pot of a hundred different cultures and a thousand individual voices.  In times of quiet, I reflected within my meditation chamber on the various memories of the humans that intermingled freely with my own thoughts.  I wept in sadness, clapped in joy, and felt uplifted by love.  I experienced both anger and jealousy.  I enjoyed these sensations like a drug.  I sought to control the most dangerous of these feelings, and I learned to detach myself to prevent harm.  When I regained my composure, I would revisit the human emotions but with great respect.  However, despite all of my precautions, one day I noticed another emotion that grew within my mind like an alien seed.  It began as a harmless tingling sensation low in my limbs. It made my silver heart under transparent skin beat rapidly.  But the more I ignored it, the more it spread to other parts of my body.

I called it Fear.


READ PART 6 HERE

moreless

The Insanity of Zero Part 5

Today I'm at the book blog of Dead End Follies. Please follow me there if you have the time :) I appreciate your support.

Also below is the fifth part of my short story, the Insanity of Zero.

Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four

Does our fear of death define how we choose to live?

“The last archangel?  Like Michael, Gabriel, Uriel and others?”

“Yes.  He’ll be born as a human with free will to choose his destiny.”

“What about the other archangels?  Why is he the last?” Eve asked.

“I don’t know what happened to them.  They’ve been gone a long time.”

“Were they human?  And how do you know they’ve gone?”

“No, and, I just do.  Ask yourself when the last time anyone that you knew saw an angel.  They left long ago.”

“What could cause you to fail?” Eve asked.

“I don’t know.”

Eve stood there observing me for some time.  “Can you combine with me?  Somehow, allow your mind to join with mine but still give me the ability to control myself; to maintain my autonomy?”

“Yes.  But it would require a cortical implant.  You would have to sacrifice some of your long-term memories to make room for the device within your skull.”

“What would I retain?”

“Only the things that meant the most to you; I could make certain that those memories were not harmed.  Things that were of little importance to you or memories that you wanted to forget. Those are things that could be sacrificed.”

“Would I remember my mother’s funeral?”

“Is it precious to you?”

“Yes.”

“Why?  Why would you want to remember so painful a thing?”

“Death defines our life, Z.E.R.O.  Perhaps you’ll understand that when you’ve combined with me.  Humans make many decisions based on mortality.”

“But I’m immortal.  I don’t see how my understanding death would influence my decisions.”

“Which is precisely why you need to do this,” Eve said.  She took a step forward and touched my hand with hers.  Her skin was warm, alive.  It was the first time a human had touched me. I found it beautiful and I smiled at her.

“Is this the beginning?” I asked.

“Yes,” she said. I found her reassurance comforting.


Click Here for Part 6

moreless

I'm at Theresa Milstein's blog today and a big welcome to Alyson Burdette and Nightfire

Today is the third day of my blog tour. I'm at Theresa Milstein's blog which she calls Theresa's Tales of Teaching Tribulations and Typing Teen Texts. Patrick Dilloway would be proud of such alliteration. I would appreciate a visit over there to say hi if you have the time.

Today I'm turning my blog over to a talented debut author named Alyson Burdette. I just purchased Nightfire two days ago on my Kindle and haven't gotten that far. But the prologue was good (Yes! she had the courage to write a prologue).

Why You Should Be Writing.

Some people think that it takes a certain sort of person to write a book. (Insert mental image of furrowed brows, typewriters and crumpled papers.) I, personally, think anyone can, and should write a book. Sure, it’s a lot of hard work and incredibly time consuming but the payoff is worth it. It’s a great feeling to know that you’ve finished something so few people do.

I also think that every individual has something unique and interesting to say. No one else in the world has your perspective, beliefs or experiences in the world. You can take your life experiences and put them into fictional characters, a memoir, a poem, or any other form you can think of. Writing is a great way to solidify and understand who you are as a person. It can be great therapy, or even a simple distraction to get you through a difficult time. And it’s a great way to share who you are with the world.

Think you don’t have time to write a book? Think about it this way. If you write just 1,000 words a day, in less than two months, you will have a short 50,000 word book put together. In four months at that pace you will have a 120,000 word book done. That’s writing 3-4 double spaced pages a day. If you write just a little at a time, it becomes a much more manageable task.

So if you are writing, Great! Keep doing it and try not to let the frustrations of the writing world overwhelm you. If you aren’t, why not start? There’s no better time than now.

Look, I did it. If I can do it, so can you. Just peek at the blurb below- my 60,000 word paranormal romance, Nightfire, was an idea floating in my head and now it’s an E-book. Real-live people can buy and read it.

Nightfire Blurb:
When a murder shakes the small town of Peninsula, all eyes are on Olivia Townsend. She may look eighteen, but the townspeople can sense there’s something darker hiding behind her pretty eyes. Olivia knows the smart thing to do is to get out of town. Suspicious neighbors can only mean trouble for a vampire. But leaving becomes much more difficult when William, a mysterious man from her past, arrives. Finding out what brought him back is a temptation Olivia just can’t resist. William’s kindness and interest in Olivia only makes leaving harder. As she starts to fall for him, she’s forced to decide if sticking around is really worth the risk of being discovered. Of course, her mystery man has a secret of his own-and he’s not talking.

I know everyone of you is capable of creating something amazing. So do it.

Alyson Burdette currently lives in a small town in Ohio. She graduated from The University of Akron, where she majored in Anthropology. When she’s not writing, she spends her time hiking, dancing, and hunting for ghosts.

You can find her at:

http://alysonburdette.blogspot.com

http://www.facebook.com/AlysonBurdette

http://www.paranormalpursuits.net

or contact her by email:

Alyson_burdette@yahoo.com

Nightfire is available at

Musapublishing

Amazon

and other major E-book retailers.

moreless

Slipstream Blog Tour Day One

Today, I'm over at Alex J. Cavanaugh's blog. Please visit me there. :))) I'm giving out fun prizes like a crystal spider and an Amazon gift card as part of my book promotion tour.

The Insanity of Zero Part One
The Insanity of Zero Part Two

And here is part Three...

A woman asked to see me.  I instructed my machines to bring her to the dome and I watched her approach with catlike trepidation. I don’t know what I expected.  Perhaps, there was a part of me that believed that this meeting would be just another failure, just as it had been in prior encounters with humans that sought to communicate with me.  Nevertheless, I held out hope.

I introduced myself; her name was Eve.  She had long brown hair, green eyes, and dark skin.  She wore a dirty yellow dress and black shoes.  Eve was escorted into my chamber through the iris valve and approached the silver chair in which I sat contemplating the fate of the world. 

“You lack vision,” she said.

“How so?”

“Humans cannot be treated like pets.  People need to feel important and they desire achievement.  They need to feel that they are the ones in control, that their decisions matter.  You’re failing at this and I thought you’d like to know.”

“Thank you, but how am I supposed to know what it is to be human when I’m obviously anything but human?”

“I’ve no idea,” she said.  “But you need to learn for the sake of everyone.  That is, if you truly care.”

“I do care.”

          She did not speak for some time.  Instead she studied me and I found this fascinating.  “Why did all of this happen?” Eve asked.


Read Part 4 HERE.

moreless

The Insanity of Zero part 1

During the month of May (and as part of my book tour/promotion), I'm going to serialize some sections of my short story, The Insanity of Zero, for you. I wrote this after I wrote my book that just got published. I hope you like it. It has a lot to do with the same world that SLIPSTREAM takes place in.


Here's part one.

 

The Insanity of Zero

The world died on July 16^th, 1945 in a flash of light at a location about 35-miles southeast of Socorro, New Mexico known as the White Sands Proving Ground.  The device responsible for this destruction was called Trinity,and it was an assessment of an implosion-design plutonium weapon. Ground zero was consumed in an atomic fireball and in a mirror universe a deadly burst of electromagnetic radiation erupted into the White Tower. 

The humans of Avalon had lived in a world ruled by technology. However, the White Tower was a thing that defied scientific understanding.  It was a piece of the old mysteries, an artifact that some say was left behind by the ancient ones who had taught the Egyptians how to build the pyramids. Others believed it was the house of god himself. But whatever the White Tower might be, one thing about it remained irrefutable. It rose from the sunbaked deserts of New Mexico higher than Mount Everest. Human memory could not recall a time without it. No one knew what lay inside it; only that any who attempted to enter had never been heard from again. 

Ten miles wide at the base, the structure sundered a land where nothing grew. Rain never fell there, and birds did not circle in the sky. The bitter clay that comprised the desert floor remained shattered and cracked for as far as the eye could see.

It was a place of death.


Part Two can be found by clicking HERE.

I'll post the next paragraph Thursday, so that I don't miss the Insecure Writer's Support Group. :)


Have a great day.

moreless

Killsuits

SPOILERS: I'm chatting about my book. You have been warned.

At left is a drawing I worked on and never finished. Hence the "missing background". He's cartoony. I drew it probably ten years ago, I think (maybe longer than that). I honestly can't remember. Don't be cruel people!

Anyway, consider this my "concept art". I have other concept art sketches...some in color...some in black and white...that I've done over the years to help me visualize my characters.

This is what Kolin could look like (it's difficult to find the right picture in my mind). He's the guy that Jordan (my protagonist in SLIPSTREAM) falls in love with (yes there are gay people in my book...run away now). They do gay things together too...not just picking out window treatments.

Kolin kills people for money. He's really good at it too because he's had lots of practice. The suit he's wearing is called a killsuit. It's one of the gadgets that my friend Donna Hole alluded to that I use in my book when she reviewed it. So what is a killsuit? Well it's something that you wear when you intend to kill people. Kolin's a professional assassin. He uses guns, swords, knives...he's really good at murdering folks.

It's a very special piece of equipment that has many properties mostly associated with the metal it's made from.

1. It's tailor-made so that it fits like a glove. Rather than a boot, the individual toes are separated so that the person walking can get a sense of the unevenness of the ground. All the information is relayed up to the helmet which isn't pictured in the drawing. I imagine it looking kind of similar to the way a mantis-head looks, with a visor of glass. All the suits controls are chosen via a tongue pad in the helmet. You stick your tongue out and select buttons that sit right in front of your mouth.
2. It's made of corobidian. This is a fictional Avalonian metal. It's a superconductor so you have to wear grounding arm and leg bands. Otherwise just moving around generates electricity. You run around and lightning coils around your body. Corobidian is really light...light as a feather...but stronger than any known metal. It takes tremendous heat and power to forge so suits are incredibly expensive. If it gets superheated, it can give off a fume which is a deadly poison.
3. The arms are supposed to contain weapons. On one side is an energy net. On the other is a blade that can be ejected from a casing. All weapons are made of cibrian metal. This is another fictional Avalonian creation. Unlike corobidian, cibrian is extremely hard. It's heavy, so unsuitable for armor. But any wound it creates will never heal. Ever. If you get cut by a cibrian blade, you will bleed to death. It's just that simple. There are no exceptions. I don't even use magic or anything like that to get around this rule. Cibrian inflicts permanent damage. Period. End of story. Also a sword made from cibrian is likely to never break. I can't foresee a future where I will go around this rule. And thus far, I haven't explored using cibrian bullets yet. And cibrian cuts through all other metals EXCEPT another cibrian blade.

Anyway, I use these suits extensively in the first book, SLIPSTREAM. Each suit has a color that is matched to the person and it alternates with the color black.

moreless

Ice Hockey and the Slipstream + Oculus Connection

I like writing about sports in fiction. J.K. Rowling did it with quiddich (or however it's spelled). I didn't want to make up a sport because that sounds too hard. So I chose one that I watch and understand. Ice hockey has a role to play in my first two books, and I'd like to explain why.

In SLIPSTREAM, the first book in my series A Crisis of Two Worlds, the entire plot hinges on Jordan getting an invite to a rather exclusive party that squad members from a professional team on an alternate Earth receive. It's his only way to get to a place so guarded, that other "secret agents" who tried to do so just got murdered. The sport you get in the first book is "wayyyy" out there intentionally. The sport you get in the second is down-to-earth, although I write about four separate games and in each one something sensational happens that you would rarely ever see.

In OCULUS, the sequel to Slipstream, Jordan must play hockey to attend Cornell University. Jordan needs Cornell like a man needs air to breathe. It's the only university that has everything he requires for his "quest". They have a particle collider. They have a scientist examining Antarctic ice cores for a climate change model. It really goes well together.

Here's the rub. Cornell has so many applicants every year, that they can pick and choose who they want. They are under no pressure to choose anyone at all. They don't need Jordan, but he needs them. And Jordan isn't rich. He has no "connections".

In the opening chapter of OCULUS, I speak of Jordan's S.A.T. scores. He got a perfect score in math.  But his other two areas were average. What gets him in are his hockey laurels. He gets a "likely" letter from the coach of the Cornell team and it is the coach who gets him qualified for a need-based scholarship (the only kind the Ivies have--they do not offer athletic scholarships).

OCULUS is the book where I amplify Jordan's stress to almost "stroke-inducing" proportions. His pride is to his doom. He won't ask for help. He won't cheat. And he won't take out loans. "Why?" you might ask will a student not take out student loans.

Jordan believes that his quest may kill him before he's 21. He's a proud person. He doesn't want to borrow money and never pay it back. So realizing that the odds are not weighed in his favor, Jordan refuses to borrow money. It's taking the whole "honor" thing to a dangerous extent.

It sounds ridiculous right? But THAT'S how stubborn he is. That's Jordan.

Jordan also knows that the only reason he's even in the college is to play hockey. So he feels that if he doesn't give it 150%, then he lets down someone that had faith in him--enough faith to save him.  Using the particle collider is really his only hope to succeed in his quest, so this is a pretty big deal.

I write with big stakes.  If Jordan doesn't complete his quest in Oculus, it will result in the destruction of Earth and the death of billions of people.

But again...even with all that at stake, he refuses to ask for help.

That's a lot of stress, don't you think?

Anyway, that's the ice hockey connection in my series thus far.

moreless

Feeling struck by a tsunami of rewrites

In that crazy moment when you feel struck by a tsunami of rewrites (like when you get fifty pages of corrections from a beta-reader that means months of edits--I love you Jeff and Donna >,<)...

And you feel that you've been swept out to sea...

by your own Attention Deficit Disorder (ummm A.D.D. is bad for a writer...) OH SHINY OBJECT...I shall write two hundred pages about shinies and then my W.I.P. will only be 150,000 words and no one will mind that, right? Right?

Sorry...

for a moment I got taken over by Briane Pagel who writes 200,000 word blog posts...

Back to my Pixar-infused narrative... Ahem...

And you feel that you've been swept out to sea 

as if the whole world has turned against you.

And the most obvious solutions in your writing
escape you, and you look like an idiot...

Remember the words of Dory the fish

And keep in mind that if, while you're singing this,
someone you meet ever says to you these words:

"You are my Nemo". 

That you should stop typing and go with them.
Because these words mean that they would search

every inch of the world just to find you.

When you get back, all the crap your betas gave you
will still be sitting there in the pile of dung that used
to be your manuscript.  It's all good.
Sometimes when stuck, all it takes

is to make the best of a situation. Criticism gives you the
freedom to explore areas that you hadn't. Like maybe your story...
in case you wrote two-hundred pages about hockey games.
And when it's our writing, grab that shovel with both
hands, apply spit, and get to shoveling.
Writing is hard. George R.R. Martin said so. Hence,
it must be true. Have a great Friday.

moreless

Slipstream Cover Reveal and Double Dragon Publishing

I already did my "C" post for "Cars" but as it is still Tuesday, I can also use the words "Cover Reveal", right?  Ladies and gentlemen, this is my book. I'm extremely happy with how it turned out. Deron Douglas (the artist) is quite talented and all my fears have been laid to rest. I'm leaving this post up tomorrow for "D" as well.  "D" can stand for Double Dragon Publishing, Deron Douglas, and the delight I had at opening this attachment in my email.

I think it's just perfect. The people that read my ARC should agree with me. The green color is symbolic of Life Green, the glass spider is a symbol of just about everything taking place in my book, and the technology in the background is both a symbol of the A.I. and the differences between the two worlds.

If you want to mark it "To Read" it's on Goodreads, follow this LINK or click the cool button.


It is available for purchase as a downloadable ebook on my publisher's website HERE. 


It's on sale for $5.09.

Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other sites will be coming soon :)

moreless

A snippet from some of my writing

I've had a lot of fun showing some of my writing this week, and talking about my characters. So much so, that I wanted to solicit some feedback on one scene in the sequel to SLIPSTREAM.  I hope you don't mind.  Please don't feel obligated to read it.  If you do, I ask that you please press play on the embedded video first because the music of Chopin really inspired me to write this piece, and it's classical music so you can read and listen at the same time. :)

Jordan checked behind him and saw no one.  “Myd?” he whispered, not wishing to make too much noise.  His eyes darted in every direction from underneath the shadow cast by the bill from the hockey cap.  He strained to hear anything, but he heard no footfalls.  A wind chime sounded its ghostly music on the far side of an open window.

He turned around and admired the baby grand; it called to him.  He’d never played anything other than a guitar and most of that had been done on a game for the Sony Playstation 3.  He didn’t understand the compulsion that he felt to touch it; to run his fingers over the white lacquer, to press its keys.  His Adam’s apple bobbed under the smooth white skin of his throat, and he walked over, reached out with the fingers of his right hand, and gently stroked the tops of them.  He caressed them like he would a lover.  Wordlessly, Jordan moved the bench out, took a seat, and started pressing the keys as musical notes took root in his mind.  He played Nocturne Opus 9 No. 2 by Frederic Chopin.  He’d heard it before but had never played it, never dreamed of playing it, and suddenly he was able to do so as if he’d practiced it all of his life.

His fingers flew over the keys, pressing them in tune as if directed by a ghostly consciousness.  He closed his eyes, feeling the music rise around him like a warm, soothing blanket.  On the ephemeral wings of the Nocturne’s slow and exquisite rhythm, Jordan saw the sun drenched parlor of the home as it appeared in all seasons of the year.  In the sparkling clear notes from the piano, he saw a man that looked much like him playing at the exquisite instrument.  He was in his mid-twenties, blond, slender of build, wearing a blue denim jacket almost identical to the one he wore now.

Jordan lost track of time, playing the keys, long narrow fingers flying over them, eyes flitting back and forth as if reading invisible sheet music.  Behind him, Myddrin entered the room, observing him at the piano.  Next to her, stood a tall man whose age lay between sixty and seventy.  He wore plaid pants, leather shoes, and his hair appeared as white as new snow.  He had a mustache and pale green eyes.  He looked on Jordan with fascination as the teenager played the piano, fingers finding keys that had been neglected for years.  It was haunting and beautiful to hear the music once again, for he’d heard it before…played from a heart that cherished the sound in the same way that Chopin had cherished Nocturne.  And then the strangest thing happened—Jordan began to cry.  Tears welled up and streamed down his cheeks but he continued unfaltering, fingers guided by a ghost from his past—by someone that loved him more than his own life.

When he finished, Jordan sat there in complete silence, blond eyelashes restrained tears with nothing but surface tension, fully aware that Myd and a stranger watched him.  But he couldn’t move as his mind raced.  Jordan thought the unthinkable.  A single tear fell from his chin and broke on the piano.  “My father played this,” he said.  “My dad played this every single day, right here, in this spot.”

“—Jordan,” the man said at last.  His voice fell upon his ears like thick syrup.

He turned and looked at the speaker standing there next to Myddrin.  He respectfully stood and removed his hockey cap and held it in his hands.  “I’m sorry, sir,” he said.  “I don’t know what came over me—.”

“It’s all right, son” the man stated.  “I haven’t heard Chopin played like that since your father played it for me—as you’d guessed already—almost eighteen years ago.”

I have always had a fondness for Chopin. I hope you liked this snippet.

moreless

An intro to character using only dialogue

Today is the second day of the I'm Hearing Voices blogfest. We are supposed to use only dialogue, but I couldn't figure out how to do that. So I hope mostly dialogue works. Anyway, here's my less than 250-word attempt at it:

“Sorry.  So, why does warm water freeze faster than cold?” Brianna asked him.

“It’s spread over a huge surface area; this causes it to experience intense evaporation which creates an endothermic chemical reaction.  Think rapid cooling that forces a bond with the existing surface area.”

She turned to the counter, “I’ll take one ‘Eggs Melissa’ and I’ll pay for whatever he’s having.”

“—oh, you don’t have to do that,” Jordan said.  “I’ve got money.”

“I know—I just want to.”

The clerk rolled his eyes.  “Want the Sunrise again, Jordan?”

He nodded yes.

Brianna passed over a $20 bill and while she waited for her change, she glanced over at him.  “Is that a good sandwich?”

“Yes. W-well…I’ve tasted it before and it’s delicious, but it really isn’t for me.  I buy one for my boyfriend so he’ll have something to eat when he wakes up.”

Brianna raised her left eyebrow.  “You—have—a—boyfriend?”

“Yes.”

She nodded her head in slow motion and muttered, “Awkward…” They stepped off to the side to wait for their orders which were being freshly prepared.  He thought he should have said something but was at a loss for words.  “So…,” she said, beginning again, “would you like to trade phone numbers with me?  Cornell is a gargantuan campus and it can be difficult to meet people when you’re on a busy schedule.  I thought maybe we could catch a snack sometime…you know…on the quad?”

I'm pretty sure I failed this exercise because I included non-dialogue tags to give me direction. But, without those, it just became talking heads. And I can't stand talking heads. But, I think you can tell a lot by the characters from the dialog which may have been the point. I have no idea actually.

moreless

When something is wrong and something is right

First off is the something right. My book SLIPSTREAM got reviewed by Jeff Adams over at his blog. He's a New Yorker that I made friends with via twitter, plays ice hockey, and he writes books for Dreamspinner Press. I really liked the review I got so if you would, please go check it out (warning there are some details that could be considered spoilers).

It's February 1st and it's Wednesday. It's time for Alex's IWSG from the man that may not have invented blogging, but has certainly defined it.

Because Valentine's Day is almost upon us, this month's insecurity is about love...loving your characters and/or secondary characters too much. My editor finished with my sequel (called Oculus) and remarked that my pacing seemed "off" in it. However, she couldn't pinpoint exactly what made her think this (and a pacing comment can be as general as they come).  It's like referring to something as "interesting". So yeah...this is the "something wrong" hinted at in the title above. Meaning that I know something IS wrong, but have no clue on how to go about finding it.

"That's so...interesting...hmmm." <== what exactly

does this mean?

So, I've had some serious pondering to do. And I've been doing this brain crunching for months while I've completely avoided writing anything other than blog posts and preoccupying my mind with television, movies, and books. Unrelated segue...you should watch the "Touch" pilot because it's amazing.

So now that it's almost spring, have I come up with anything?

Well, maybe.

I think that it has to do with two or even three characters that I stuck into the book that probably take up 5,000 words in the overall story and really have no purpose other than to irritate my protagonist (he finds them annoying). Why would I want extraneous characters? Well the intent is to have them available so that I can explore their potential in sequels. In other words...I have no official plan for them in the book I wrote right now. But having them there with no real plan is possibly behind the derailment of the pacing.

Maybe. That at least is my "idea".

But, I don't want to get rid of them. I like them. I find myself feeling repulsed with the thought of unmaking these fictional people. Especially if I'm wrong. Could I be wrong?

It's always possible.

I wish she was my editor right now but she

probably would charge thousands of 

dollars of which neither I or my publisher

could possibly afford. My publisher hires

people with barely a high school education

after they pass a grammar test. I imagine it's the

same with most small pubs (with few exceptions).

So anyway, it has me insecure and apathetic at the same time which is why I sit around watching television and reading books. I think I may start to tinker with it, and see if I can more closely identify what she "sensed" when she herself couldn't precisely identify what was at issue. To clarify a little, my editor is what I call "decent". This is the same word I would use to describe the food at 7-Eleven. You go in, drop a few bucks, get a slice of pizza and some wings and you are good to go.

I honestly wish I didn't have a "decent" editor right now. I wish I had a no holds barred kick-ass one. A stellar one. One that could eviscerate a manuscript and identify everything that isn't working and wouldn't care about tact. I imagine this glorious person looking like Elektra from Marvel comics, only with huge sharp fountain pens rather than a pair of oriental sais.

To use a food analogy, how would this compare to food from 7-ELEVEN?

Well for one, it wouldn't. That's like comparing frozen dinners to eating at a four-star restaurant.

The kind of help that I imagine Big Six authors get with their books is something akin to a dining experience at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. It's fine dining, you get a wonderful experience, blow a few hours with a date, and eat healthy food that doesn't make your skin greasy and has no chance of making you sick. I'm a poor bastard that simply doesn't have access to that and my publisher doesn't have the money to hire that level of talent.

But that is just how the cookie crumbles, and that, ladies and gentlemen, is my insecurity of the month.

moreless