News and Notices from the Writing Trenches #94…
I wish for all a safe and enjoyable July 4th weekend! Please drive safely and drink in moderation as you celebrate the country’s Independence Day.
Item. More than Human: The Mensa Contagion. We’re about to hit the publish button for my new sci-fi novel. It offers a twist on an alien invasion story as well as exploring our final frontier. Here’s the blurb: “People of Earth! You’ve just won a complete makeover of your society that brings peace and prosperity. What will you do next?” “Why, go to Mars, of course!” This epic sci-fi tale relates how an invading ET virus affects Earth’s social structures and subsequent space exploration. I had fun writing it. I hope you have fun reading it.
Item. Countdown to countdown. Teeter-Totter between Lust and Murder, book #3 in the “Detectives Chen and Castilblanco Series,” will be a Kindle Countdown Deal from July 1 through July 7. It will be on sale for $0.99 during that period, reduced from $2.99. Chen is accused of murder, but proving her innocent leads to a lot more than just a crime of passion. This is a mystery first, thriller second, in contrast to other C & C ebooks. These books can stand alone and be read in any order, so this is an opportunity to meet these detectives. They play on their home turf too, the Big Apple.
Item. Free writing contests. I usually don’t support or enter contests because there are fees. The ones mentioned here are free. The first is a general short story contest sponsored by the Creative Writing Institute–there are some rules so read them. The second is a sci-fi writing contest sponsored by a German site, Inkitt. Their site also supports other genres. Try them out and let me know.
Item. Kindle Unlimited. Many of my ebooks are exclusive to Amazon via KDP Select. That means readers participating in the Kindle Unlimited program can download these ebooks for free. On the book’s Amazon page, you will see the current price and the price for Kindle Unlimited, $0! Take advantage of this and don’t feel bad about it. I’ll still count you as a valued reader. Readers rule, and I value every one of you.
Item. My love affair with anthropology and archaeology. Like many baby boomers, the public library was my refuge for reading when I was a kid. I finished all the sci-fi books there by the time I entered high school. I also read most of the books on anthropology and archaeology, focusing on primitive cultures and the prehistory of human beings. I thought I wanted to go into those fields, but decided the human animal was just too complicated, so I opted for math and science to prep for a day-job, knowing that writing was a hard way to put dinner on the table. My father influenced that decision, choosing to feed his family over many years over painting still-lifes and landscapes.
That wee bit of personal history explains why I’m a big fan of the PBS series, “First Peoples.” I follow all the news about human origins in Science News, but this series brings some of this to the TV screen. So far this series has focused on the new discoveries produced by the use of genetics. And here’s a novel novel idea: write a story about the mitochondrial Eve or the chromosome-Y Adam showing how they lived and died but getting all the science right. I’m not up to that challenge, but maybe some enterprising writer will be!
The true story of this Eve and Adam from the world of science isn’t only exciting, it’s a morality lesson. They didn’t say it during the show, so I’ll say it here: That all modern human beings can trace their origins to a small section of Africa two hundred thousand years ago where the mitochondrial Eve and the chromosome-Y Adam lived and died should be a slap in the face to every bigot on the planet. We’re all the same, whether black, yellow, white, with kinky black, curly red, or blond straight hair, tall, short, fat, or slim. That’s established scientific fact.
This program is one case where they’re not hitting me up for donations while I watch some PBS special interrupted by their proselytizing (those Celtic music specials come to mind). I know they offer programs that are far better than the droll stuff on network TV, but I don’t spend enough time watching any kind of TV—we have basic cable and no more. (BTW, instead of donating, I often buy the PBS’ DVDs. I have Planet Earth, The Civil War, and a few others. I figure I’ve paid my dues.) Most of the time, I’d rather be reading a book. In this case, I knew the facts beforehand, but it was stunning to see the visuals and the graphics on my TV screen. Well done, PBS.
Item. Formulaic v. predictable. Yesterday’s post on the dangers of predictability might have caused some confusion. Are these two adjectives interchangeable? Nope, but reviewers often use them that way (I probably have too). Neither one is negative per se, but a writer can be formulaic without being predictable. The first implies that s/he’s just following someone’s formula (preferably her/his own), a writing algorithm for spinning a yarn, if you will. Mysteries are often formulaic: a crime is committed, X sets about solving it, progress is made in spite of misdirects, there’re a few twists, and there’s a climax followed by a denouement. Every mystery author from Agatha to Asimov follows this formula (Asimov’s Caves of Steel and The Naked Sun are sci-fi mysteries).
Predictability for me is a worse sin, if being formulaic is indeed a sin. Again, considering the mystery genre, those misdirects and twists in the plot are there precisely to make it unpredictable. You provide clues to the reader and s/he accepts the challenge of trying to figure out who did the dastardly deed. If the reader can predict that after reading the preface or prolog, the mystery author’s in trouble. The only writer who got away with it was Garcia Marquez in “Chronicle of a Death Foretold.” I suppose some critics would call this little jewel a thriller because we know what’s happening, but I still call it a mystery.
Item. Current projects. I divide my time between reading, reviewing, discussion groups, this blog, story writing, editing, and PR and marketing. I’m privileged to be a full-time writer now. As a consequence, I have the luxury of planning far ahead, something I couldn’t do when I started putting my writing out there about ten years ago. What are some of the projects in my future plans?
My characters, Detectives Chen and Castilblanco, are still growing. Readers probably already know about Family Affairs, #6 in the series. Family is the theme, but don’t get all teary on me—those who read the preview at the end of The Collector know that this is a thriller. It will be published this fall. But early next year, #7 is coming; Gaia and the Goliaths is the tentative title. It will be more of a mystery than a thriller.
More than Human: The Mensa Contagion motivated me to do another sci-fi novel. It will be set in the far future, a wee bit later than the Dr. Carlos stories (Pasodobles in a Quantum Stringscape and Fantastic Encores!). A YA sci-fi mystery has been on the backburner for a long time—I might start working on it again. And Esther Brookstone from The Collector has been calling me from London periodically to ask for her very own mystery/suspense/thriller.
Of course, a completely new project might stir my creative juices—my lists of what-ifs, character and story ideas, and possible settings are long, so don’t be surprised. I’m many things, but I’m not predictable.
[Kindle Countdown Deal: Teeter-Totter between Lust and Murder, #3 in the “Detectives Chen and Castilblanco Series,” will go on sale July 1 through July 7, reduced from $2.99 to $0.99 for this period. Does Chen commit murder? The long answer is surprising.]
In elibris libertas….
