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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Being Discovered

I just read a wonderful article on writers becoming “discovered” over on Hugh Howey’s blog. Hugh gives advice to budding authors on what they should be doing to get discovered.  It was a solid dish of meat and potatoes.

What I took away from my initial read (and I will be reading it again) is a writer needs to write and he or she needs to write books.  It’s the backlist, the quantity of titles that is paramount in getting “discovered”.  Because once you are discovered, the reader will want to read more than that one book that is out there.  I know it works for me that way.  When I discovered the Nero Wolfe mysteries, I was like a wild man — I had to read them all.  Then I had to buy them all.

The other thing I took away was to write in a popular genre, if you want to ease the way to being discovered.

So I am going to continue trying to figure out the social media game (I’m that guy at the party standing by the wall, near the punch bowl).  But the bulk of my time is going to be spent on writing all those great novels I’ve wanted to write for the past 50 years.

Check out Hugh’s post and let me know what you think.

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Dreams

Where would we be without dreams?  I’m not talking about the kind that wake us up at two in the morning after eating pepperoni pizza.  No, I’m talking about the dreams that embody our desires, our aspirations, our hopes.

Well, today I realized one of mine.  By 8.30 this morning I had received notification four of my books were now live on Amazon.  I can now say I’m a published poet and novelist.  For over fifty years I dreamed of writing novels and of getting them published.  That dream is now a reality.

The, for me, difficult part lies ahead — the marketing!  And that task will be tackled as all the others:  one day at a time.

We live in a truly amazing era.  Just ten years ago the current infrastructure for independent artists was largely non-existent.  The iPad was first released a mere four years ago.  The first iPhone, seven.  And the first Kindle, also only seven years ago.  Those devices and others like them have revolutionized our access to and consumption of art and entertainment.  The current indie movement, in my opinion, couldn’t exist without them.

But also of immense help to the indie artist is the proliferation of WYSIWYG blogging platforms and website builders.  And where would we be without social media, which provides the ability to network on a scale unimagined in the history of humankind and provides us with the opportunity to connect with those who want what we have to offer?

Today is the day you and I no longer have to simply dream dreams and wish.  Today, we can make those dreams real.

Feel free to share a dream or two you’ve realized.  Today is a great day to be alive.

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