What’s Happening in 2015?

I’m not a prophet or a mystic. I don’t do Tarot or have a crystal ball. I can make guesses, both educated and un-educated, but am of the opinion they are generally a waste of time.

So what is on the docket for my little corner of the world? (I’ll leave the rest of the world to the news pundits and those who do have crystal balls).

In January, I’ll be retiring from the day job. Joining the pensioner ranks. And I am going to love it! T minus 17 work days and counting!

In 2015, I’m looking forward to taking a couple of trips. Destination? TBD. I’ve never taken a train trip and would love to try the Amtrak. If any of you have been on Amtrak, please write of your experience. I’ve read it can be quite the adventure.

If I can afford the time and money, I’d like to take a couple weeks off and go on a self-guided silence and solitude retreat. If you’ve never been on one, I heartily recommend it. From my experience, it is the best thing you can do for yourself. The time at the retreat allows one to rest. I mean really rest. Like sleep and just move through the day without that invisible whip cracking over your head. The time with yourself is invaluable in allowing you to get to know who you are. You don’t need to be religious either. Just be breathing and have a desire to get in touch with your innermost core. Or just a desire for some peace and quiet and rest.

I want to set up a regular walking schedule so I can keep my joints limber. Might dust off the bike too. Lots of bike trails in the Twin Cities.

On the writing front, I anticipate:

    • Publishing numbers 3 and 4 of The Rocheport Saga. Maybe number 5 as well. The saga is written. Over 2200 manuscript pages. Just needs typing, editing, and the occasional rewrite to package it into readable installments.
    • Publishing a second Lady Dru novel. Thus far, I have 75 manuscript pages written.
    • Publishing a third Justinia Wright, PI novel. 120 manuscript pages written at this point.
    • Finish a new post-apocalyptic, dystopian series I started this month. The initial 22,000 word novella is typed. I envision a total of 7 books in the series. Some full novel length, some novella length.
    • Looking through the files to see if I have something I might want to dust off and run with for 2016. Truth be told, I have dozens of fragments and dozens more of story ideas I’ve collected over some 30-40 years of being a wannabe writer. I say it again, the Kindle and the iPad are the best things for writers since the invention of ink.

I anticipate a busy, productive, exciting, tranquil, and hopefully prosperous new year. I wish the same for you!

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White Christmas

At least in Minneapolis we’re dreaming of a white Christmas. Unseasonably warm weather and rain have vaporized our snow. NOT that I’m unhappy about it. We had a couple weeks of snow and I’m ready now for spring.

The weather prognosticators tell us very cold weather is headed our way after Christmas. Night temps going below zero. With no snow, that will be hard on the plants.

At times, I wonder what the Advent and Christmas seasons would be like without snow. No chance of even having snow. I’ve visited family at Christmas time who live in no snow zones. The time away from the cold and snow was welcomed. But to live in a place where snow never fell, that’s a sleigh of a different color. Although those family members assure me they don’t miss having to shovel at all.

But with no snow, there would certainly be no frosty cold made moan in the bleak midwinter. Jack Frost wouldn’t be nippin’ at my nose and while the weather outside might be frightful, I wouldn’t be singing, “Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.”

The Christmas culture is inextricably tied to snow. Santa may have come one winter in a whirlybird, but it was an experiment that apparently didn’t catch on. His sleigh continues to be the preferred mode of transportation. Although one look out my window and I’m thinking Santa might want to reconsider ditching the whirlybird. Or at least consider using an ATV.

Weather aside, and even religion aside (because the yuletide existed long before Christianity), this time of year is to be with and remember family. Whether actual family or those who are considered family. We humans are social creatures, even the most misanthropic of us. That’s the point of A Christmas Carol. Scrooge becomes “normal” again. Our ability to form large social networks has enabled us to thrive as a species. To the point where we’re endangering the survival of where we live. But that’s the subject of another post.

I wish you all a happy Christmas (in all its symbolic richness) and a peaceful and prosperous New Year. We all want to hope and dream and, with those we love, to see those hopes and dreams come to fruition. May it be so for you and yours.

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What Is Dieselpunk?

What is Dieselpunk? Ask a hundred dieselpunkers and you’ll probably get a hundred answers. I’m a newbie to the genre and in searching the ‘net for answers and reading the literature that is available I found the technical answers somewhat similar, but the literary execution to be anything but. That is perhaps due to the dieselpunk genre being rather new and as yet mostly unformed, in contradistinction to the much more established steampunk.

So what is Dieselpunk? I see the genre as being an attempt to recreate the Zeitgeist of the era spanning from the end of World War I to the end of World War II (and perhaps extending into the ‘50s). This recreation can be either in the time period itself or in a more contemporary era which is heavily influenced by the Zeitgeist and aesthetic of the diesel era. The recreation of the Zeitgeist is accomplished by a revival of the future vision of the people of the diesel era through their science fiction and especially non-fiction visionary writings as found in magazines such as Popular Science, Popular Mechanics, and Popular Aviation.

In short we could say dieselpunk is the future vision of the people who lived in the ‘20s, ‘30s, and ‘40s made into reality via fiction.

That vision I see as one which was extremely positive and optimistic regarding what humanity could accomplish. In an era weighed down by a massive depression and an era which struggled to maintain peace, there was incredible hope and optimism. Science would indeed make our lives better and the world a better place in which to live. I find that attitude so very encouraging.

Do you have any thoughts on the Diesel Era and the Dieselpunk genre? Let me know.

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Rational Anarchism

Nearly fifty years ago, a writer by the name of Robert A Heinlein wrote and got published a book entitled, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.  One of the principal characters in the novel is Professor Bernardo de la Paz, who describes himself as a “Rational Anarchist”.

What is a Rational Anarchist? Let’s take a look, because the words rational and anarchy seem to be contradictory. A Rational Anarchist:

    • Believes the state, society, and government are concepts which do not exist apart from the physical acts of self-answerable individuals.
    • Believes blame, guilt, responsibility, and answerability makes it impossible for a person to shift, share, or distribute blame.
    • Being rational, the rational anarchist understands not everyone shares his or her views; yet, he or she strives to live perfectly in an imperfect world; completely aware he or she is not capable of achieving perfection.
    • Accepts all rules society deems necessary to secure its freedom and liberty.
    • Is free no matter what the rules are in his or her society. If the rules are tolerable, he or she will tolerate them. If not, the rational anarchist will break them.
    • Is free because the rational anarchist knows only he or she is morally responsible for everything he or she does.

Why do I bring this up?  Because Bill Arthur in The Rocheport Saga tries to create a new world along similar lines. He begins as an anarchistic libertarian, seeking on a societal level to create the ultimate environment for freedom.  Eventually he realizes people are people.  Even after a calamity which wipes out 98 out of every 100 people, those who survive haven’t essentially changed. The survivors are no different than they were before they were survivors. People want freedom, but actually crave security and will sacrifice freedom for security every time they feel insecure.

In the end, Bill Arthur becomes a Rational Anarchist.  He concludes the Stoics were right over 2,000 years ago: all we can ultimately do is control ourselves.

Tell me what you think about freedom and security. Is Bill Arthur right?

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Two New Books Out!

Two new books are now available at Amazon in the Kindle store: The Shining City, the second book in The Rocheport Saga, and Trio in Death-Sharp Minor, the second volume in the Justinia Wright, PI series.

In The Shining City, our intrepid hero, Bill Arthur, must face wars and rumors of wars and continuous obstruction in his path to turn post-apocalyptic Rocheport, Missouri into the shining city on the hill. And he himself finds it is not so easy to live by the Golden Rule he espouses.

Justinia Wright and Harry Wright return in a trio of novellas to tackle and bring to justice those bent on mayhem in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St Paul, Minnesota.  Along the way, the love lives of our heroine and our hero are in for major changes and murder strikes close to home.

Check them out!

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Gestation Period

I’m a late bloomer.  Have been my entire life.  I’m not complaining, just stating a fact.

Festival of Death was my first novel.  I wrote the manuscript over the course of a year.  1989, to be precise.  When finished, I sent off a couple query letters and got my obligatory rejection letters.

Taking a second look at the manuscript, I realized it needed revision.  I was working full time and raising a family.  I put the manuscript in the drawer and turned to poetry.  Less concentrated time investment and more immediate results.

In February of this year I finished a 2200+ page manuscript which is being serialized as The Rocheport Saga.  Book 1, The Morning Star is out and Book 2 will be released shortly.  While researching indie publishing, I cast about for what to write next and decided to pull Festival of Death out of the drawer.

A lot of time had passed between 1989 and 2014.  The story was woefully dated.  Cell phones turned to smart phones were now on the scene.  The Kindle and iPad and iPod were no longer dreams, but ubiquitous realities.  WYSIWYG blogs and websites and indie authors making big bucks were also a reality.  A lot can happen in 25 years — and did!

Most importantly, I’d changed.  I’d matured.  As a person and a writer.  I was an apple ready to pick.

To get back into my PI’s and her assistant’s heads, I wrote 3 novellas.  They’ll be released soon as Trio in Death-Sharp Minor.  Then I went back and completely re-wrote Festival of Death.  The storyline remained the same.  Pretty much everything else changed.

Good things come to those who wait.  A combination of persistence and perseverance is needed to achieve dreams.

Have you dusted off an old manuscript, re-worked it, and sent it forth?  If so, tell us your story.

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Update on KOPN Interview

Due to a mix up in communication, the KOPN interview was taped on Sunday, 30 November.  Apologies to all who may have tuned in to listen.

I’ll post the air date and time when I’m notified.

I can say, it was a lot of fun!

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Interview on KOPN!

Sunday, 30 November 2014 at 1 pm Missouri time, I’ll be interviewed on KOPN radio.  89.5 FM in Columbia, Missouri.

Columbia is next door to Rocheport and Rocheport is where Bill Arthur, in The Morning Star (The Rocheport Saga, Book 1),  decides to call home and rebuild civilization after the apocalypse.

Tune in, if you can, or check out live streaming.

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Introducing Gwen Poisson

One of the joys of writing is being able to create people you’d love to meet or who espouse causes near and dear to your heart. Such a character is Gwen Poisson.  She’s a minor character in Festival of Death, the first novel in the Justinia Wright, P.I. series.

Harry Wright, the narrator in Festival of Death, says of her:

Gwen is forty.  She stands five-four, with an average frame, and wears her dark chocolate hair in a pixie cut.  She worked ten years out in Silicon Valley, another three as a professional hacker, before becoming a PI.

He could have added, she is warm, friendly, and faithful, Tina Wright feels a special kinship with her, she’s a vegan, and her favorite drink is cucumber-infused water.

Gwen does wage a quiet and continual campaign to convince Tina and Harry of the efficacy of veganism.  She states the issue quite clearly in this comment to Tina  over a pizza supper.

“We have to stop eating our fellow creatures,” Gwen said. “We are wiping out wild stocks; we are engaging in massive pollution of groundwater due to animal waste from feed lots; and excreted hormones, drugs, and antibiotics are wreaking havoc on wild animals — both on land and in the sea.”

Harry is quite sympathetic to Gwen’s position.  In the forthcoming novella, “Love Out of Death”, we learn that Harry is cooking up quite a bit of a vegetarian storm because it’s best if one doesn’t eat something that has the 3 Bs:  breath, blood, and brains.  Tina, as with most of us, isn’t convinced.

While I must confess I’m still an ovo-lacto-carno vegetarian, Gwen espouses a dietary and lifestyle choice I admire and would like to make my own.  I’ll admit meat can be pretty tasty.  But vegetables and grains, fruits and nuts are pretty doggone tasty, as well.

But there is more to the issue than taste.  There are the issues of pollution, extinction, cruelty, and negative energy.

As in the quote above from Gwen, the production of meat is the cause of mass pollution.  Waste (i.e., excrement) pollutes our land and our water.  Corporate farms and massive feedlots generate more waste than a farmer can use.  It is pumped into holding tanks and often enough, the tanks leak.  Not good for us or the environment.

Over fishing is destroying sea creatures in such alarming numbers it is quite possible our seas may be mostly barren in a few short years.  Just as hunting wiped out the passenger pigeon, the dodo, and nearly wiped out the bison, over fishing is wiping out wild stocks of the ocean’s inhabitants.  Fish farming is a possible solution, but it has it’s own issues and negative effects on wild inhabitants of the sea.

Living in a feedlot can’t be a pleasant experience.  I’d hate to try it for even an hour.  Yet we force animals against their nature to spend their lives in such caustic environments.

And this leads to my last issue, which is negative energy.  When treated harshly, the animal holds within itself negative energy.  Animals are not “dumb beasts”.  They are surprisingly intelligent creatures.  Pigs are smarter than dogs.  Cows have a language of vocal sounds and body movements.  Animals feel pain.  They can get angry.  They know who likes them and who doesn’t.  They also know fear.  Especially the fear of death, they smell at the slaughter house.  Honestly, do you or I want to eat the hormones generated from the fear and anger of mistreated animals?  Do I want that negative energy inside me?

Please don’t take this as a diatribe against farmers.  Because that is not what I intend.  Having lived amongst farmers, I know they struggle to make ends meet.  They struggle to make a living.  Often having to hold down another job in order to make the farm profitable.  So, no, I’m not criticizing farmers. If anything, I’m blaming an economic system which doesn’t give the farmer a fair shake.

I think people are ultimately to blame.  As Gwen points out in “Love out of Death”, there are simply too many people.  Too many people on the planet means we can no longer humanely raise animals for meat to feed the burgeoning population.  Our only alternative to effective feed the planet is to go vegetarian or vegan.

In addition, we in the West live in luxury.  Even our poor are better off than most of the other inhabitants on this planet.  I think the day has come where we need to start viewing meat as a luxury we can no longer afford.

Through Gwen Poisson, I have the opportunity to quietly present a position I think is beneficial to all humanity.  We all want to eat.  The amount of grain given to cows to fatten them up will feed a whole lot more people than that cow will.

Vegetarianism takes a bit to get used to simply because it is different, but it’s not impossible to do so.  Hindus don’t eat meat and Indian cuisine is quite delectable.  So it can be done.  And done in style.

One of these days, I’m going to drop that carno.  Stop eating things with the 3 Bs.

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Making Money Writing

I have to admit, I’m not much into marketing at this point in my writing career.  Mostly because I’m too busy trying to get books written.  But Lindsay Buroker’s latest post on her first month’s earnings from her pen name project, made me stop and give this subject some further thought.  Mostly because what I’m currently [not] doing might be costing me some big money.

To pull in a little over $3000 as an unknown author in her first month, I’d say is pretty awesome.  Doggone phenomenal.  Nine days after releasing my first 4 novels I have a mere 14 sales.  Not even $35.  I’m not complaining, mind you.  I’m simply saying maybe I’m missing out on a bit more cash that I could be making if I did a few things differently.

One thing Lindsay mentions and maybe the most important thing, is her use of KDP Select and Kindle Unlimited.  Certainly Amazon stacks the deck in favor of those who go exclusive with them.  As an author I don’t like it.  I cry, “Foul!”  “Unfair!”  Yet if I was Amazon, it is exactly what I’d do.  It’s what traditional publishing has done for over a century.  Lock in a stable of money-making authors and — make money!

Right now, authors can make money right along with Amazon.  In the future, who knows?

The other thing that stuck out was advertising didn’t seem to do much.  I haven’t planned on paying for advertising.  From Lindsay’s experience, I don’t think doing so is worth the money at this point.

A great post by Ms Buroker.  Informative.

For now, though, I think I’ll continue along with Hugh Howie’s approach and just write.

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