“Relax. Become one with your present. Make your mind empty.” These are some meditation recommendations among many you might find on YouTube (or hear from a certain weekend anchor on ABC’s GMA—like many celebs, he has a book, and it’s about meditation). It’s all malarkey, especially if you want to write fiction.

As a student of theoretical physics, I was attracted to Zen Buddhism, maybe the ultimate meditation protocol. There’s a strong nexus between it and modern astrophysics, for example. I wanted to seek enlightenment after hearing about its precepts back in the sixties. Call it my religious studies period (if you can call reading many works on religion and Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land religious studies), although my math and physics courses took up a bit of time too.

Don’t get me wrong. I wasn’t into hallucinogenic substances or becoming a complete sot (I was more of a bourbon fan—now it’s Jameson Irish whiskey). I’ve always valued a clear mind—it’s about all that’s ever worked well enough to set me a wee bit above my peers. And not being able to get into a lotus position wasn’t why I failed at Zen.

The reason for my failure was more profound as it turns out: When I was supposed to get into that restful state and put all worldly concerns aside, I couldn’t. My mind would start a burst of activity where I “explored” solutions to Einstein’s general relativity equation (never could remember the solutions, though), or created clever story plots (some of those I remembered and used much later), or wondered what the statistical mechanics exam two weeks in the future would contain (remembered only dread there because the prof was an ogre). I failed at “transcendental meditation” (or whatever Allan Watts called it).

Now I don’t feel guilty about flunking Zen, as it were. In Steven Johnson’s article “Time Travelers” in the NY Times Magazine (11/18), all was explained to me. The author quotes UPenn psychologist Martin Seligman: “What best distinguishes our species is an ability that scientists are just beginning to appreciate: we contemplate the future. A more apt name for our species would be Homo prospectus because we thrive by considering our prospects. The power of prospection is what makes us wise.” In their resting state, human beings naturally do what I was doing. Meditation in the Zen style or any other style is contrary to human nature if the expectation is to empty your mind of all your cares!

(more…)

Have a safe and happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Remember the reason for this holiday. And please drive carefully.

***

Most sci-fi readers have their own list of novels they remember with fondness. While yours might be different, I want to offer you mine. For younger readers, there are probably some oldies in my list you could enjoy. Maybe you’ve seen some of the writers acknowledged on classic Star Trek episodes. Maybe you’ve heard old geezers like me mention them fondly. In any case, many are classics now. Without further ado, here’s my list in alphabetical order according to author:

Isaac Asimov, Caves of Steel

Isaac Asimov, Foundation

Isaac Asimov, The End of Eternity (1956)

Isaac Asimov, The Naked Sun

Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

Orson Scott Card, Ender’s Game (1985)

1. J. Cherryh, Downbelow Station (1981)

Arthur C. Clarke, Rendezvous with Rama (1973)

William Gibson, Neuromancer (1984)

Joe Haldeman, The Forever War (1975)

Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land (1961)

Robert A. Heinlein, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (1966)

Frank Herbert, Dune (1965)

Fred Hoyle, The Black Cloud

Aldous Huxley, Brave New World

C. M. Kornbluth, Not This August

Larry Niven, Ringworld (1970)

George Orwell, 1984

Frederik Pohl, Gateway (1977)

Clifford D. Simak, Way Station (1963)

H. G. Wells, The Time Machine

(The years in parentheses indicate the date the novel received the Hugo Award.)

Most of these novels are either hard sci-fi (i.e. they use reasonable extrapolations of current science and technology, no matter how tenous), dystopian, apocalyptic, or post-apocalyptic. There is no fantasy or horror, and military and space operatic sci-fi are generally absent. The only “punk” novel is Neuromancer (Gibson invented the cyberpunk subgenre); the only militaristic sci-fi novel is Haldeman’s The Forever War. Note that not all the books listed received the Hugo Award, either because the award didn’t exist at the time, or because they were overlooked and shouldn’t have been.

Also note that there are no books after 1985. Why is that? 1985, when Card’s book Ender’s Game won the Hugo, was a cutoff date for great sci-fi. It’s not that good sci-fi-like tales haven’t been told after that date, they just aren’t “great.” Modesty aside, I’d like to call some of mine “good,” but objectively I can’t call them “great” either. The list of authors listed here were trailblazers in the genre. Those who have followed them (myself included) have very big hurdles to leap over.

All of these books should be considered classics (assuming snooty critics can ever consider genre fiction novels as classics—they tend to limit themselves only to those books in the catch-all genre “literary fiction”). I’ll admit I might have missed some classic sci-fi (I neither included all Hugos nor only Hugos, and I depended on my memory for authors and titles). I can state without reservation that I read every one of these novels and enjoyed them all (and a lot more than these, of course). Any list like this is subjective. You can make your own, but I’d expect a lot of overlap. (Maybe you’ll have some after 1985 to include.)

I seriously doubt that more classics will be written. The sci-fi genre has been weakened by many new subgenres; it has been weakened by mixing genres, particularly with romance and erotica, but also with a whole new list of “punk” genres and fantasy-oriented tales with little or incorrect science in them. Streaming video, computer games, and movies have changed what the reading population means when the label “sci-fi” is used (the SyFy channel regularly programs Harry Potter movies—what’s with the name?); they have also reduced readership. What Hollywood calls sci-fi is usually questionable (for example, all shows in the Star Trek franchise after the first classic series are poorly written and shouldn’t be called sci-fi, while the Star Wars movies are pure fantasy if they’re not plagiarizing Edgar Rice Burroughs). In this kind of entertainment environment, classics cannot be written.

All the novels in my list are like dinosaurs. We might view them fondly like we view a brontosaurus or T-Rex, but they’re part of our distant past now. That’s sad. But like Mozart’s “Jupiter” Symphony or Beethoven’s Fifth, maybe they’ll live forever…as long as human beings walk the Earth and don’t themselves become extinct like the dinosaurs.

***

Comments are always welcome!

Goin’ the Extra Mile. The U.S. made the MECHs (“Mechanically Enhanced Cybernetic Humans”), Russia stole them, and now China wants them…and will kidnap Mary Jo Melendez and her family to get them. Returning to the globe-trotting suspense and action of #1 with many of the same actors as #2, this third book in the “Mary Jo Melendez Mysteries” is a rousing finale for this trilogy. Available on Amazon and Smashwords and all the latter’s affiliates (Apple iBooks, B&N, Kobo, and so forth).

In libris libertas!

I admire J. Michael Straczynski for his screenwriting associated with Babylon Five, the TV series. He considered the five years of episodes just chapters in a novel, but I considered them five novels forming a series of books (yeah, some would have cliffhangers, something I eshew). In any case, he set out with a finite constraint in mind. That’s wonderful restraint that Hollywood rarely exhibits with TV series or franchise films like Mission Impossible or Star Wars, as they try to extend a good run ad infinitum.

Many authors write book series; for some, that’s all they write, e.g. Sue Grafton. Straczynski knew when to quit; he planned when and how to quit! Last time I checked, Grafton hadn’t made it to Z, but I stopped reading her alphabet series long before that. For me, Sue got in a rut, and I suspect her publisher helped keep her in it. Perhaps Sue is the exception, but do series authors know when to end a series?

I suppose we can call a book series the opposite of writer’s block, especially if we take publishers out of the picture, making it only the author’s choice to continue a series. Each book in a series appears because the author has more stories to tell about the main characters in the series and/or wants to develop the main characters more. The danger is that the writer gets in a rut.

While I might add another novel to the “Detectives Chen and Castilblanco Series” (seven novels now, with The Midas Bomb as #1 and Gaia and the Goliaths as #7), I’m aware of that danger. I thought the novella The Phantom Harvester (free download found on my “Free Stuff & Contests” web page) might be another one featuring Castilblanco’s adopted kids, a new novella You Know I’m Watching will appear here in installments, and the main characters Castilblanco and Chen have cameos elsewhere (and short stories about their other cases), but I’m leery of jumping back into the series right now. I don’t think I’m in the proverbial rut, but I’m afraid of risking it. But who knows?

That “who knows?” is key, of course. If I can convince myself that the rut isn’t there, I might do it. To consider another genre, some nice readers and reviewers have compared my sci-fi to Dr. Asimov’s, but that’s a stretch. However, Dr. Asimov provides a good example in that sci-fi genre. He wrote the famous Foundation trilogy (clearly George Lucas read it); he also wrote the robot novels Caves of Steel and The Naked Sun (really sci-fi mysteries, the second featured in a previous post), and the time-travel novel End of Eternity. He then stopped writing fiction for a few decades—maybe not in a rut, but temporarily tired of fiction—and wrote many popular science books. When he returned to fiction, he made the extended Foundation series, adding many books to those six already written and masterfully tying everything together (four of them are mentioned in Thursday’s post).

I definitely can’t repeat Dr. Asimov’s performance! First and foremost, I don’t have decades to wait! Second, three of my series are already connected, although many readers don’t realize it: the detective series, the “Clones and Mutants Trilogy,” and the “Chaos Chronicles Trilogy,” with The Golden Years of Virginia Morgan as a bridge between the first two, Soldiers of God a bridge between the second two, and Rogue Planet as a tag to the whole thing (readers can follow this in “The Future History Timeline,” a free PDF they can download). A. B. Carolan’s The Secret Lab and The Secret of the Urns fit in there too.

Of course, more novels can fit in that very long series, and short stories and novellas already have and will continue to do so (for example, the Dr. Carlos stories—a new one just appeared here—and the aforementioned two novellas). But will I write more novels in that huge series? Again, who knows?

I don’t see any ruts in the road ahead. However, my readers are the passengers in my speeding car, and they might see some I don’t. From my point of view, I just see a reluctance for more travel on that one particular road. Rembrandt’s Angel is becoming a series with its sequel Son of Thunder (OK, it could be considered a spin-off from the detective series); Goin’ the Extra Mile makes the “Mary Jo Melendez Mysteries” into a trilogy; and my new book The Last Humans definitely (to be published by Black Opal Books) has series potential. We’ll see how it goes. My muses (banshees with Tasers) just “insist” I keep writing. I will, as long as I can.

Maybe authors should just avoid series altogether to avoid ruts in their writing roads? What do you think?

***

Comments are always welcome.

Goin’ the Extra Mile. The U.S. made the MECHs (“Mechanically Enhanced Cybernetic Humans”), Russia stole them, and now China wants them…and will kidnap Mary Jo Melendez and her family to get them. Returning to the globe-trotting suspense and action of #1 with many of the same actors as #2, this third book in the “Mary Jo Melendez Mysteries” is a rousing finale for this trilogy. Available on Amazon and Smashwords and all the latter’s affiliates (Apple iBooks, B&N, Kobo, and so forth).

In libris libertas!

Most mystery and thriller readers have their own list of novels they remember with fondness. While yours might be different, I want to offer you mine. For younger readers, there are probably some oldies in my list you might have missed and could enjoy. Maybe you’ve heard old geezers like me mention them fondly. In any case, many are classics now. Without further ado, here’s my list in alphabetical order according to author:

Isaac Asimov, The Naked Sun

David Baldacci, Absolute Power

John le Carré, Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy

Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye (1955)

Lee Child, The Affair

Agatha Christie, Death on the Nile

Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles

Michael Connelly, The Narrows

Jeffery Deaver, Garden of Beasts

Ken Follett, Eye of the Needle (1979)

Frederick Forsyth, The Day of the Jackal (1972)

Dashell Hammet, The Maltese Falcon

P. D. James, Death in Holy Orders

Elmore Leonard, Get Shorty

Robert Ludlum, The Bourne Identity

Robert Parker, The Godwulf Manuscript

Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, Relic

Ian Rankin, Resurrection Men (2004)

H. Rider Haggard, She

John Sandford, Bad Blood (2011)

Georges Simenon, A Battle of Nerves

With the exception of Sandford’s book, the years indicate when an Edgar Award was rewarded to the novel (Sandford’s is a best thriller award). I haven’t always chosen every author’s Edgar or thriller award novel if there is one because sometimes I don’t consider it the best! And many of the books in my list were unfortunately overlooked by the award committees.

I also should emphasize that most of the writers have authored many more books than the one that appears here for them. Baldacci produces bestseller after bestseller, but the one listed, his first, is his best. Deaver is more famous for his Lincoln Rhyme series, but I also think the one listed is his best. Follett has broadened his horizons, especially to more lengthy historical fiction, but none can beat the one listed here (also historical fiction in a sense and akin to Deaver’s in a way).

Many authors listed here were trailblazers in the genres. Those who followed them have a very big hurdle to leap over. All of these books should be considered classics (assuming snooty critics can ever consider genre fiction novels as classics—they tend to limit themselves only to those books in that catch-all genre “literary fiction”). I’ll admit I might have missed some classic mysteries and thrillers. I can state without reservation that I read every one of these novels and enjoyed them all (and a lot more than these, of course).

Some books here have influenced my own work in the mystery and thriller genres. Hard-boiled mystery writers like Chandler, Hammett, and Parker influenced my “Detectives Chen and Castilblanco Series,” but its spin-off, Rembrandt’s Angel, was influenced by Christie (the main characters are a modern version of Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot, together at last!), and by P. D. James and Ian Rankin. Jame’s Death in Holy Orders influenced my sequel Son of Thunder much more than Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code (the latter’s influence was more limited to doing such a story the correct way, without controversy and sloppy historical research).

Any list like this is subjective. You can make your own, but I’d expect at least some overlap.

***

Comments are welcome!

Goin’ the Extra Mile. Hot off the press and available on Amazon and Smashwords and its affiliated retailers (iBooks, B&N, Kobo, etc). The U.S. made the MECHs (“Mechanically Enhanced Cybernetic Humans”), the Russians stole them, and now the Chinese are after the MECH tech and are willing to kidnap Mary Jo and her family to get it. #3 in the “Mary Jo Melendez Mysteries” puts Mary Jo and her MECH friends through the paces as the action and suspense takes the reader from the U.S. to Europe and China, returning to the globe-trotting thrills of the first novel, Muddlin’ Through, which is also now on sale for $0.99 at Smashwords for a short time.

In libris libertas!

I’ve just finished three novel-writing marathons. One has the length of most of my novels; the other two are really longer. All three required a lot of digging for background material (research), more so than usual—something like running up “Heartbreak Hill” in Boston (the NYC Marathon run last weekend is flat in comparison).

Let me describe the novels and some of their background material.

The Last Humans. While my Survivors of the Chaos (#1 in The Chaos Chronicles Trilogy Collection) is dystopian sci-fi, I’ve never written a post-apocalyptic sci-fi novel before. In this post-apocalyptic thriller, the main character Penny Castro, an ex-USN diver working for the LA County Sheriff’s Department, survives the apocalypse but then has to survive many other dangers as her world goes to hell.

Background material involved studying everything from airborne contagions and extreme weather conditions to comsats and saltwater desalination platforms, along with a lot of California geography from my past and its more recent changes (I’m a native Californian, but I haven’t lived there for years). In other words, in this case, I knew the settings, but I had to refresh my memory.

That was marathon #1. (Black Opal Books will publish this novel in 2019.)

Goin’ the Extra Mile. This novel is #3 in the “Mary Jo Melendez Mysteries.” Ex-USN Master-at-Arms Mary Jo Melendez fought off U.S. and Russian government agents in the first two books. They were after the MECHs (“Mechanically Enhanced Cybernetic Humans”), super-soldier cyborgs with Top Secret hardware and software improvements created in a U.S. government project. In #3, China wants the MECH tech, and they’re willing to kidnap Mary Jo and her family to get it.

I’ve never been to China. I’ve read about it a lot, and not only in non-fiction—one of Ludlum’s Bourne books takes place there (maybe also #3?), and so does Donna Carrick’s The First Excellence (both great books, by the way). (I think one of Barry Eisler’s thrillers takes place there too.) My lack of personal knowledge about the country made gathering background material more difficult.

That was marathon #1. (Carrick Publishing has just published this novel—it’s available at Amazon and Smashwords and their affiliates.)

Son of Thunder. This sequel to Rembrandt’s Angel can be described as Esther Brookstone and Bastiann van Coevorden meeting the artist Sandro Botticelli and the disciple St. John the Divine…with no time travel involved! If that sounds too quirky for you, let me describe it as the novel Dan Brown should have written in place of The Da Vinci Code in the sense that there’s no bungled historical references (in Mr. Brown’s defense, most of those came out after he published his book).

All that history created the background problem. While bringing all these characters together challenged my historical sleuthing, the farther I went back in time, the less is known historically. Like most historical fiction, I had to fill in many gaps in the historicaal records. But it’s still a mystery/thriller novel even with all the historical and religious content.

That was marathon #3. (I’ve submitted the manuscript.)

Phew! Readers can understand why I’m now taking a little break by writing short fiction and articles for this blog. Call it the cooling off period after the last marathon. Or a training period of sprints and middle distance runs to prepare for the next marathon?

***

Comments are always welcome!

Books on sale. To whet your appetite for Goin’ the Extra Mile, #1 in the Mary Jo trilogy is now on sale for $0.99 at Smashwords for a limited time. Also, for the month of November, the mystery/thriller The Golden Years of Virginia Morgan is 50% off on Smashwords.

In libris libertas!

I love them. Being at them, participating in them. Sounds weird, doesn’t it? Like many authors, I’m an introverted and shy guy who sits down at his laptop a lot to pound the keys and do my storytelling. (I couldn’t finish all those novel-writing marathons any other way.) But I also enjoy discussing reading, writing, and the book business with readers who honor me by attending these events. Sometimes I’m alone; other times not, and then I can also have those same discussions with other authors in attendance. Beats socializing with doctors, that’s for sure!

Book events come in all flavors—not exactly 31, but enough to test an author’s creativity and insecurity. Much more so than an art show. While every painting tells a visible story and has its own story (my father exhibited his art work a lot), a book contains the quintessential story between its covers. Words on its pages are the modern equivalent of words uttered around an ancient campfire during human prehistory.

Book signings come to mind first. I like them least, although signings are often included in my other book events. Sitting behind a table stacked with a bunch of books, pen in  hand, with readers lining up in front of the table, doesn’t appeal to me as much as other events…and too many celebs do them. And, contrary to book marketing gurus’ opinions, standing up behind the table doesn’t bring you any closer to your readers either, and I get tired too easily doing it.

I prefer events where I have a chance to chat with readers. The Q&A at the end of a lecture, a panel discussion, a book fair with its wonderful chaos of readers and writers mingling together—that’s all more appealing to me.

(more…)

Some authors are traditionally published and have their book formats determined by their publishers. Others must decide. (Being a mongrel author, I know both sides well.) A minority must decide on the print formats for their books. Each format has particular followers, but there’s a lot of overlap among those groups.

The “classic formats” are now hardbounds, trade paperbacks, and small paperbacks, among the print versions, various ebook formats (mostly .mobi and .epub), and audiobooks. The media in each case is different; the content is the same: short story collections, novellas, and novels, for fiction, and novel-length or longer tomes for nonfiction.

Every author needs print versions for book events. I suppose there’s some way to hand out a card or something with website info where readers can go to retrieve “electronically signed” ebook copies, but that seems clumsy to me. At book events, readers want to hold a physical copy in their hands. I’ve watched them peruse them—the interest, the wonder, the love for books, from age nine to ninety. If authors don’t do book events (many don’t for lack of events in their area, or the time and money required to set up these events), they can get away with just ebooks, but they’ll be missing out on older readers if they don’t have some available in their oeuvre. Preferences for print might be mixed too. In my case, for example, I like my nonfiction in print and my fiction in ebooks. The latter save my bookshelves from sagging and crashing (I buy a lot more fiction) and are easier for me to send to reviewers, especially overseas (the postage is often onerous). I also know many commuters who prize audiobooks for their long commutes.

I have more ebook-only novels and short story collections than  print/ebook titles. I have no problem with this because there are enough in my list of print/ebook titles in my oeuvre that I can cover my book events. Novels from small presses (I now work with two) are invariably print/ebook titles. Indie authors and those published by small presses usually don’t have audiobooks unless the authors finance them themselves. The reason is simple: audiobooks are expensive to produce if done right, that is, a professional reader is a must, and those readers are expensive!

The cost criterion often means that hardbounds are a rarity for indie authors and authors published by small presses. What about those small paperbacks you find in airporsts?  It’s possible that some small presses are missing market share here—many travelers still pick up a paperback in an airport store before a long flight, although I just load up my Kindle before long trips (mostly cruises now, and not travel for a day-job—I’ve done my share of that!).

(more…)

I don’t know about other readers, but I have a vested interest in increasing the number of good books written by good authors. In my article “Internet PR and Marketing” (9/25/2018), I lamented that self-published authors and authors published by small presses have a tough time getting their work known. In spite of Big Five claims to the contrary, ALL authors have a tough time nowadays unless they’re among the ones pampered by those big publishing houses. And a reader who likes a good book shouldn’t limit themselves to those Big Five faves.

What can readers do? For a start, if you read a good book, tell other readers about it. Word-of-mouth advertising is still the most important form of advertising, whether face-to-face or on the internet, and telling just friends and family can start a snowball effect for our favorite authors and their books. You can also write a review for a book you like. It doesn’t have to be an MBA thesis. Just say what you like and dislike and why. You can be brief and still convey information to readers and the author. Your motivation? Stimulating that author to write more books!

What can writers do? The Big Five’s prima donnas don’t do much. They’re not very accessible to readers, rarely write a review other than some endorsement for other members of their exclusive club, and don’t care much about not doing much because they already have name recognition. Other writers? Don’t be like that! Support your fellow authors. You should all be avid readers, so you should share my vested interest. Yes, I know, helping other authors takes time from our writing. But think about this: promoting other authors and their books helps your own name recognition. The more it’s “out there,” the better.

I do my best to promote other authors. Sure, Amazon makes it difficult for authors to review other writers’ books. For some reason, the Amazon bots think authors shouldn’t be reviewing books. Excuse me! We’re probably the most qualified to review a book, outside of some academic critic in an ivory tower who has lost all contact with today’s publishing realities. Anyone should be able to review books, so Amazon is doing readers a huge disservice. When Amazon rejects your review, put it on your blog. That’s what I do. Or post it on Goodreads; although Amazon owns that site, their bots seem absent there. (I’m sure Amazon will get around to “fixing” that.)

But enough about Amazon and their nefarious ways. I do more than write reviews (formally for Bookpleasures and informally for my blog). I interview authors. Both reviews and interviews take time, but once I got in the habit, they’re just part of my writing life. And good karma is sometimes returned—I can be invited to do an interview on other websites. Or go after that elusive combo of interview plus review.

These are low-cost ways for readers and writers to help their favorite authors, and for authors to help themselves. All they cost is a wee bit of time. Except for book launches, paid marketing is probably a waste of time in comparison, and costs money.

But one last thing readers and writers can do for authors: go to local book events where the authors participate. First, for readers, it’s a good way to meet a favorite author; and for writers, it’s a good way to talk shop with authors. Moreover, our attendance at these events encourages the events’ sponsors to have more of them. Finally, our participation promotes the greatest gift we human beings have, the gift of reading and literacy. Books ensure human freedoms and discuss human weaknesses, not to mention the sheer joy of reading a good story well told.

***

Comments are always welcome!

The entire “Clones and Mutants Trilogy,” Full Medical, Evil Agenda, and No Amber Waves of Grain, is now 50% off on Smashwords. The first novel introduces the clones; the second has a mutant help them battle a criminal mastermind; and the third has the mutant and clones battle another criminal mastermind and Russians and their mutant. Hours of exciting mystery, thrills, and suspense reading to entertain you.

In libris libertas!

You’ve probably read something like this after the copyright in every fiction book you’ve read: “This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.” Something to that effect, at least. The publisher or author might add something about settings and products, if real, are only used in a fictional context.

Such statements are made by authors and publishers to protect them against lawsuits for libel and/or slander for the most part. Most characters are well-tempered amalgams of people the author knows, of course, accentuating certain traits here and diminishing them there. Same for places of business, products, and so forth. Authors do this unconsciously, and there’s usually no problem. Below I’ll focus on the characters, but most of what I say also applies to things.

Some authors often don’t understand that they can write real people into their books. That’s obvious for biographies and autobiographies. Even memoirs, if there’s evidence for anything negative you say about other people (consult a lawyer?). Historical fiction usually has a mix. But can genre fiction use real people and stay out of legal trouble?

I’m no legal scholar, but the answer to the last question is yes! I worried about this when I was writing Aristocrats and Assassins. Many of the aristocrats are real. I didn’t use their real names, opting instead for Shakespeare’s solution of calling them Denmark and so forth (not really Shakespearean, simply a reflection of old royal tradition—the king or queen IS the state!). There were two reasons for that: it wouldn’t be clear who I’m referring to exactly, and it wouldn’t date the novel (the two reasons are related, of course). You can make a guess about the person because the Chen and Castilblanco novels are linearly ordered in time, but that timeline is fictional if you consider that the events in The Midas Bomb supposedly took place in 2014. (Maybe they did, and the government just didn’t tell us about them? They certainly involved Mr. Obama.)

As I neared the end of the novel writing marathon with Aristocrats and Assassins and after further thought, I realized that I didn’t need to worry. Clancy had used Prince Charles in Clear and Present Danger, and, as far as I know, received no blow-back from the British royal’s lawyers. You might know about other cases involving books in the mystery and thriller genres.

You can use real people if they have no reason to sue you, i.e. you show them in a good light. Clancy did that with Prince Charles. I did it for all the real royals in my novel (the fake ones had some questionable character traits, but don’t come off too badly either). In fact, some of the royals in my novel performed the role of hero in various parts of the tale.

In that sense, I could categorize Aristocrats and Assassins as historical fiction, but it’s set in a fictional future! Beyond mystery and thriller, that’s a good way to describe it (illustrating once again that genre labels nowadays can be nothing more than keywords). And that probably makes the novel unusual enough that I’m surprised other authors haven’t jumped on that bandwagon. It might even make a good movie. Nah! Hollywood would probably destroy it, just like they have the Jack Reacher stories.

***

Comments are welcome!

The entire “Clones and Mutants Trilogy,” Full Medical, Evil Agenda, and No Amber Waves of Grain, is now 50% off on Smashwords. The first novel introduces the clones; the second has a mutant help them battle a criminal mastermind; and the third has the mutant and clones battle another criminal mastermind and Russians with their own mutant. Hours of exciting mystery, thrills, and suspense reading to entertain you.

In libris libertas!

Because I’m taking a breather after three novel-writing marathons by writing short fiction (the novels are: The Last Humans, to be published by Black Opal Books in 2019; Goin’ the Extra Mile, #3 in the Mary Jo Melendez/MECHs trilogy, to be published by Carrick Publishing this fall; and Son of Thunder, the sequel to Rembrandt’s Angel), I decided to take the time to analyze how my short fiction often morphs into a novel later on. The reason is simple and probably applies to many authors: I decide I have more to add to the story.

This evolutionary journey often takes several years. I wrote the short story “Responsibility” even before my first novel Full Medical (2006); it eventually became the second part of the novel Survivors of the Chaos (2011) (now with a second edition contained in the Chaos Chronicles Trilogy Collection). I wrote the story “Retiree 114 at Pine Hills Manor” just after that; it inspired one plot line of The Golden Years of Virginia Morgan (2013). And my short story “Marcello and Me” won some kind of contest and appeared in the collection Pasodobles in a Quantum Stringscape (2013) long before A. B. Carolan turned it into The Secret of the Urns (2018) (Volume Two of the Pasodobles collection is now a free downloadable PDF; see my list on the web page “Free Stuff & Contests”).

There are probably other examples—I write a lot of short fiction. And it sometimes goes the other way. When I start a story, I’m never sure whether it will be a dash, middle distance, or marathon race (corresponding to short story, novella, or novel). I thought Phantom Harvester and other novellas in the list of free fiction might become novels (excluding the ones I resurrected from moving boxes, zombies from their temporary tombs). They just didn’t make the grade. More than short stories, to be sure, but I made the decision that there just wasn’t enough material there to run the marathon. Maybe I’ll make them into novels in the future (or someone else will do so after I’m dead!).

This is an important point: authors have to have motivation to endure the marathon run of a novel. Persistence, yes; ideas and material, yes. But you can’t do it without the motivation. Short fiction can provide this motivation years later. The corollary to this is simple: You can always come back to a short story or novella and make it into a full novel, and you can always extend a novel by creating a series. We’re the engineers at the controls of our writing trains. We just have to make sure we implement positive train control at all times!

***

Comments are welcome!

Free fiction? As I said, I’ve written a lot of short fiction…and still am. So has A. B. Carolan. Download some from my web page “Free Stuff & Contests”—The Phantom Harvester (crime novella) and Pasodobles in a Quantum Stringscape, Volume Two (collection of speculative fiction stories) are new additions to the list. You will also find free short stories archived in the blog categories “Steve’s Shorts” and “ABC Shorts.” Enjoy.

In libris libertas!