Dale E. Lehman's Blog: Lehman's Terms, page 3

Hospital Time

Kathleen and I have spent the last week in the hospital. She was taken by ambulance to Franklin Square Medical Center last Sunday with gastric bleeding. Once stable and diagnosed, she was transferred to University of Maryland Medical Center for treatment. She’s doing well in most respects, so we had high hopes she would get out today, but it looks like we’ll be here over the weekend now.

When one enters a hospital, time is altered. An hour on the inside isn’t like an hour on the outside.  The availability of doctors and nurses and facilities changes with the influx and outflow of patients, varying unpredictably with the condition of those patients. You can spend hours waiting for the simplest test or procedure, or you can be called in at a moment’s notice for something more complex.

In our case, a whole week vanished while they got her stabilized, ran a battery of tests, and performed a procedure to reduce the risk of future bleeding. I didn’t go to work during this week and did very little writing. One of our daughters took over the homestead. I haven’t even had a chance to pay the bills. Things await my attention, piling up, preparing to ambush me whenever I return. The cats don’t much like our absence, either, but I suppose they’ll live.

By the time we get home, I probably won’t know what day I’m on anymore. Time on the outside will have moved on, while time on the inside seems to crawl. I’d blame it on some strange effect of General Relativity, but no. It’s just the hospital.

 

K. T. Munson: Worlds of Light and Shadow

Recently I’ve been reading novels by newer, largely unknown indie writers. By way of helping them along, I’ll be introducing some of them here. These authors are up-and-coming, at varying stages in their development as writers. They may not all have the polish of traditionally published authors, but I think they all have potential and deserve encouragement.

Born on the eve of a war that all but destroyed his kindred, the Shadow Clan, Ki is raised by the surviving elders. His whole life has been spent in training for just one purpose: to kill forty-two sinful people and collect into himself their souls, thus releasing them from their evil and becoming the savior of his race. Mission nearly accomplished, he discovers that his last two targets have committed no sin. One is a child too young to bear any guilt. The other is Elisabeth, a brilliant young “fringe sciences” researcher who harbors a terrible secret: she is half human, half demon. But she has suppressed her darker side and remained pure, so Ki cannot kill her. Yet.

Still stranger things are afoot. In a realm of planets joined to each other, to the Netherworld, and to the magical Divine Court itself by five Gates, dark forces have been awakened. People’s spirit animals are vanishing. Whole families are committing suicide without reason. Dangerous creatures from the Netherworld are breaking through to the planets, attacking and abducting whoever they find. For reasons she does not comprehend, Elisabeth alone holds the key to understanding these strange events, but she needs Ki’s help. Would-be killer and would-be victim must form an uneasy alliance to halt the spreading darkness. In the end, they will learn that neither of them are what they once had thought.

The Sixth Gate is the first volume in a planned trilogy (The Gate Trilogy). K. T. Munson has spun a complex, intriguing fantasy world filled with creatures of light and darkness. The story pulled me in from the start and kept me going, although I found it a bit easier to set aside in the middle than I did at the beginning and the end. The ending more than rewarded the effort, though. Pity I can’t tell you about it without giving away too many things! The characters were in the main well-defined, although I didn’t quite get the level of evil vibes I would have expected from the principal villain. The settings were quite good, particularly the look and feel of the Netherworld. I could well imagine myself slinking through its shadows, hoping to remain unseen. Overall, I’d put the story elements at a solid 4.5 stars.

I found the writing a bit uneven, though. Some parts were quite good, especially in the earlier chapters, while other could use a fair bit of tightening. In particular, some of the dialogue and intense action scenes could use some help. However, these are issues most indie writers face in their earlier works, and I found the text readable enough to give the writing 3 stars. Overall, then, I feel justified in granting 4 stars to this novel. I look forward to book 2, The Nowhere Gate, being even better.

I recently asked K. T. Munson about the novel and her writing. Here’s what she said:

The world of “The Sixth Gate” is quite complex and vibrant. Where did it all come from?

Equal parts research and my brain! In my mind my characters are alive on these complex worlds and I’m simply writing down their lives. However, I only get snapshots in dreams and the like, so I have to fill in the pieces—hence the research.

I found the relationship between Ki and Elisabeth intriguing. He is out to kill her and she knows it, yet they must work together to combat the growing darkness. On top of this, they both carry a lot of that darkness within them. Could you comment on how all that plays into their relationship?

You’ve touched on one of the very important central themes to the book and series as whole: We are all born with the capacity for cruelty and for goodness. In a way I wanted to show that two people who are very similar in their inner struggles and circumstances took two different paths because of their environment. We are shaped by the conditions of our birth, but they do not have to define us.

Without giving too much away, a point of clarification I’d like to make here is Ki wants to save Elisabeth by freeing her soul. He thinks of himself as a savior and doesn’t really consider his ‘darkness’ to be dark. It isn’t until Elisabeth becomes his mirror that he starts to question everything about his mission and by extension his ‘truths.’ In turn Ki is Elisabeth’s catalyst to help her come to terms with who and what she is. However, the acceptance of her demonic half is down to her in the end.

There are a lot of mythological creatures as well as (it seems) creatures of your own making. How much did preexisting mythology enter into your world-building?

Great question! It isn’t explored as much here, but many of the creatures throughout the series are either my own creation or borrowed from mythology for very deliberate reasons. I did use mythologies from across the world and through time, more so in Morhaven which you’ll see more of in the next two books.

However, I borrowed from existing or historical societies as a loose foundation on each planet and then built up around them my own flourish of cultures, belief systems, and social structures to create each unique planet. It was a lot of work to build 6+ unique planets, and there is so much more on each planet that isn’t explored because it isn’t relevant to Ki and Elisabeth’s story. Thankfully I love world-building, so even though it took time, it was a lot of fun!

This is book 1 of a planned trilogy. What can you tell us about the next book?

Thankfully, I’ve already written the next two books. I’m happy to report that because there has been so much positive feedback I’ve been working like a madwoman to get the second book ready for publication later this year, rather than next year. For the next book you’ll want to hold onto your seat because you’re in for a wild ride!

The second book, The Nowhere Gate, starts off with Ki completely without memories or a body on an unknown planet. Meanwhile, Elisabeth’s search for Ki takes her and Nanette to Morhaven where Elisabeth must face new perils, from creatures to the cunning Det Mor Clan. It is under the pretense that Nanette serve her month with Ethandirill in the Netherworld.

What advice to you have for readers or writers?

For fellow writers, keep writing. Let your stories be told. For readers, bless you! Novelists like myself need readers like you who are searching to be transported to other worlds.

Where can readers find you?

On my blog, my mailing list, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest,  Instagram, Goodreads, my Amazon Author Page, and Smashwords.

Chrys Cymri: Strange Incursions

Recently I’ve been reading novels by newer, largely unknown indie writers. By way of helping them along, I’ll be introducing some of them here. These authors are up-and-coming, at varying stages in their development as writers. They may not all have the polish of traditionally published authors, but I think they all have potential and deserve encouragement.

Penny White is a faithful and caring Anglican priest with a bit too much familiarity with alcohol. That might explain why, coming upon the scene of a traffic accident, she finds herself giving last rites to a fatally injured dragon. Yes, dragon. Curiously, inebriation didn’t conjure this situation. The deceased dragon is real, and her pastoral care for the exotic creature is about to catapult her into a new Church role: Vicar General of Incursions. Turns out our world and another coexist in close proximity, connected by “thin places” where those who can sense them–or who just stumble upon them–can cross between. Stranger still, that other world is populated by, among other things, dragons, unicorns, griffons, harpies, and snail sharks.

The Vicar General of Incursions has to deal with accidental crossings. Somebody has to do that because, trust me, you don’t want a snail shark infestation! Still, Penny has enough on her plate already: her much younger brother, just returned from New Zealand with computer skills but no cash and even less sense of responsibility; her husband’s accidental death in a boating accident a few years before; deathwatch beetles eating the pews; clueless parishioners; other people’s tragedies. For anyone else, it would all be too much. But Penny has a thing for dragons, not to mention Dr. Who and Star Wars and whatnot, so she can hardly refuse the appointment. Besides, at least one dragon seems to have a thing for her. As does a certain police inspector. And more seriously, the death of that dragon in a traffic accident may have been no accident.

The Temptation of Dragons reads like a cross between Harry Potter and The Vicar of Dibley. It’s a fun romp through fantasy and reality, tinged with humor and pathos. Both story and writing are solid, proving that indie writers can indeed publish material every bit as good as anything that comes out of a traditional publishing house. There is a healthy dose of Anglican religion, but not in a preachy way. It’s simply a necessary part of Penny White’s life, done well because Cymri is also a priest. I’m looking forward to reading the next installment in Penny’s life, The Cult of Unicorns, as well as the subsequent novels. So, zero complaints, five stars. Well done!

I recently asked Chrys Cymri about the novel and her writing. Here’s what she said:

This is a wonderful novel. Is it your first, or had you written other novels before?

My first two novels were traditionally published in 1996. Sadly, these only sold around 5,000 copies each, so the publisher and my agent dropped me. I continued to write, but only a couple of years ago did I decide to publish what I’d produced during those years. Penny White, however, is only two years old.

Like Penny White, you’re a priest. How much of her is really you?

When my bishop told me, “I really enjoy Penny White,” I felt the need to tell him, “But I can assure you I don’t drink as much as she does.” We do have similar tastes in whisky and Doctor Who, but she is far more reticent than me. (I have a tendency to say what I think and then get into trouble for it). I don’t have her same family experiences and, sadly, there’s no darkly beautiful dragon haunting my back garden.

I couldn’t help but notice (as I said in my review) certain resemblances to both Harry Potter and The Vicar of Dibley. How much (if any) have either of those influenced the development of the Penny White series?

I like Harry Potter, but I’m more of a Narnia fan, and I think that might be the greater influence. I’ve only seen a couple of Vicar of Dibley episodes, but I did enjoy Rev and, again, that’s probably had more of bearing on what and how I write.

Without giving too much away, what can you tell us about Penny’s further adventures?

Well, the romantic triangle continues, but isn’t the major focus of the series. I’ve just finished the fifth novel, and there is a resolution of sorts. In the fourth book, The Vengeance of Snails, we finally discover the truth about who Clyde really is. Penny becomes far more involved in the magical country of Lloegyr as the series goes on, and discovers that there is a dark side to her adventures.

What advice to you have for writers or readers?

Writers: Don’t publish too soon. Make sure you have people read your novels, and take on board their criticism. Readers: Please do leave reviews. It keeps us writers going when we’re plugging on late into the night after a long day at work.

Where can readers find you?

On my website, Facebook, and Goodreads.

Reviewer Loves “Ice on the Bay”!

As we near the February 26th release of Ice on the Bay, we’ve received our first review, and it’s a great one courtesy of British book blogger Julia Wilson. She previously gave great reviews for The Fibonacci Murders and True Death, and seems to like Ice on the Bay even more:

A cold case collides with present day crimes of murder, blackmail, arson and burglary. The cases run side by side as the reader tries to guess the connection, if any. Literally a jaw dropping ending that had me hooked and reading with heart racing.

You can read her full review at Christian Bookaholic and BookGobbler.

D. J. Cooper: Bite Size Chunks of Science Fiction

Recently I’ve been reading novels by newer, largely unknown indie writers. By way of helping them along, I’ll be introducing some of them here. These authors are up-and-coming, at varying stages in their development as writers. They may not all have the polish of traditionally published authors, but I think they all have potential and deserve encouragement.

Scattered throughout the void, a collection of stations provide services to travelers and host meetings between wealthy executives who wish to avoid scrutiny of their business dealings. Si-Cross Four is one such station, but it’s hardly the place to be. “We were halfway between bigger and better places,” Detective Trackneathan comments. “Bigger to the left, and better to the right!” Track, as everyone calls him, is basically a good cop with a bad mouth. His attitude gets him into trouble time and again, and now he’s been suspended for simply doing his job: in self-defense, he’s shattered a criminal’s jaw, and Authority Four, the local security team, has to pony up for a mechanical replacement. They don’t like that.

Prosthetics are a way of life on Si-Cross Four. Following a biological disaster (referred to as an “outbreak”) some years back, many of its denizens now have mechanical limbs, and thanks to a shortage of funds and materials, many of those limbs are balky. Track’s own knee gives him incessant problems, so he knows what it’s like. Survivors of the original outbreak, gray-skinned and often missing more than one limb, are stigmatized as “Remnants.” Everyone is terrified of a new outbreak, so when a woman drops dead at Track’s door, that’s the first thing they think of. But Track isn’t so sure. Funny things have been going on lately. Remnants are vanishing, he’s being followed, his apartment is being broken into, investigations have been shut down, and he’s bombarded by strange messages that could only have been sent by his dead husband–messages that nobody else sees or hears. Are the decontamination drugs Track is required to take messing with his perception? Is he loosing his mind? Or is something sinister truly afoot? Suspension isn’t going to stop him from getting to the bottom of it. The truth turns out to be far more twisted than he could ever have imagined.

Missing Remnants was written for and is available on Radish, a mobile app that allows downloads to Android and iOS devices. It is not currently available through any other venue. Cooper wrote a couple of previous works that did not find publication, and this one is technically not published yet. She plans to revise and edit it further and either publish it through a traditional publisher or, failing that, go the indie route.

In reviewing it, I’m therefore treating it as an advance review copy (ARC) in which editing is not complete. From that standpoint, I can’t find much at all to pick on. The story is solid, the characters are well-drawn, and the pacing is about perfect. It’s a page-turner for sure. If anything is wrong, it might only be that the world of Si-Cross Four isn’t explored in quite enough detail. This is a short novel, around 47,000 words, partly because of the requirements imposed on authors by Radish. There is room for a lot more. And yet, I hardly noticed this omission while reading. It was only afterward that I started wondering about the nature of these outbreaks, the place of Si-Cross Four in the larger conglomeration of stations, and similar questions. So I don’t feel it’s worth dinging the work much on that account. I’d rate both story and writing on the high side of 4.5 stars, which means a 5 for all intents and purposes. With editing and maybe a bit of expansion, the final product could well be a 5. Great job!

I recently asked D. J. Cooper about the novel and her writing. Here’s what she said:

Detective Trackneathan (Track) seems a bundle of contradictions. He has a volatile exterior that gets him into trouble, yet he fawns over his robotic dog and spends his off-hours fixing disadvantaged people’s artificial limbs. He’s an experienced detective who seems to have the grudging respect of his superiors, yet he often portrays himself in this first-person narrative as a bumbling idiot. How do you see him?

That’s accurate! Track is good at his job but he has a history of cutting corners. The world he inhabits likes things to be done in a certain way, almost to the detriment of the end result. Track likes to find a shortcut. He’s grieving, he’s trying to pretend he’s okay, occasionally he loses his temper and lashes out in situations where tact might be the better option. He’s also carrying a long term injury to his right knee. He’s dealing with physical pain, grief and survivor guilt and sometimes just doesn’t rate himself highly.

I suspect there is a lot more to this world than you’ve told us. Track works for Si-Cross Four Authority, and other Authorities are mentioned. Can you tell us what these other Authorities are and how they are interconnected?

Somewhere in a wide universe, I see a system of space stations used almost like motorway service stations. Each station has a number. In this case, we’re on Si-Cross Four. The security team on the station has the corresponding title Authority Four. I worked in IT for a few years. Each cluster of buildings in London had its own IT department. It made sense for me to assume a similar premise for space stations! They are meeting places where ships can refuel and be repaired, and where executives who want to do deals face to face can avoid their every word being recorded. The word “Authority” is somewhat misleading. They keep the peace on their station and investigate crimes, but they have no say in anything outside of their microcosm. The wider system is overseen by a group no one sees. The people on Si-Cross Four are just there to keep their mouths shut and get on with their jobs.

I understand that Missing Remnants isn’t actually published yet. What plans do you have for it?

Like everything I write, I’ll sit on it for while and iron out more kinks. If I fail to find a traditional publisher for it, I’ll buy a cover and do what I did with my first two books: publish ebooks on most of the platforms and paperbacks wherever I can. It is becoming increasingly obvious that I do not have the time in the day to put in all the hours required as an indie author to find promo outlets which work without pushing myself into debt! Missing Remnants is currently only available to read on the Radish Fiction app for iOS and Android. The app is free and you can read the first three chapters of any book for free. Some books are totally free. Other books have a micropayment attached to chapter four onward.

I wish you all the best with that. It’s a wonderful story, so I hope you can find a publisher. In the meantime, what else are you writing?

I started serialising Iridessian Haunts when Radish asked for Halloween stories back in September. It was never featured in any of their collections but I’ve started, so I’ll finish. A team has landed on planet Iridessia. They are there to ascertain its viability for colonisation. Everything seems fine except for some big cats out by the third waterhole. Kanner and Nix are investigating a cave system near their temporary settlement. While they’re in there marveling at the pumpkin-like plants able to grow in a cave (I even mentioned pumpkins!), they see shadowy figures and eventually are possessed by an entity they have not encountered before on any planet. Essentially, Iridessia has everything, water, breathable air, land, ghosts.

When I can think of something interesting to say, I am also writing for Medium.com. Writers can be paid if paying members “clap” their articles and stories. If there is something I need more than time, it’s money.

What advice do you have for writers or readers?

For readers: Jump in and try an indie author. You can read a sample online or download one before having to part with any money. Some indie authors are quite good! If you happened to like what you read, we live for honest reviews. Also if the book was free, the author gets nothing, no royalties, zilch. I’ve heard people say downloading a free book is the same as getting a book out at the library. In the UK we have public lending rights, where libraries pay authors if their books are borrowed. It might not be much, but it is better than nothing. [Dale adds: In the U.S., libraries buy books, and authors get paid for those purchases.]

For writers: Don’t get to the end of writing the book and think you’ve finished. In an ideal world, everyone would be able to pay an editor. At the very least download a free grammar checker for your word processor. Do not hit publish until you know your sentences make sense! If you can get someone to read it for you who won’t automatically agree with everything you write, even better. Nothing should read as if it’s been badly translated from a foreign language. Not that I’m an expert, but I have been known to make sense on occasion. Even then you haven’t finished; you won’t sell anything unless people know about you.

Where can readers find you?

On my blog, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, Smashwords,  Amazon, Radish, and Medium.

Where History Meets Dinosaurs and Horses

In some of my recent posts, I’ve been touring you around Howard County, Maryland the setting for my mystery novels. In Ice on the Bay, which you’ll get to read at the end of February, some of the action centers on a townhome in the community of North Laurel.

Tucked in the southeast corner of the county, North Laurel is principally a residential community of some 20,000 souls. As you might expect, it lies roughly north of the city of Laurel, Maryland. Laurel, though, lies in Prince George’s County.

Europeans first came to the area in the 1608, when Captain John Smith explored the upper Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. The Patuxent River, the boundary between Howard and Prince George’s Counties, was first named on the map resulting from those explorations. Later, settlers grew crops here, especially tobacco, and built mills which brought industry to the area.  Laruel was originally named Laurel Factory in 1837 when Edward Snowden became the first postmaster. It was a mill town with schools and shops where mill workers lived in company-owned housing until the 1860s. The surrounding agricultural areas included what is now North Laurel.

Laurel maintains a historic district and is home to the Laurel Park Racecourse, a thoroughbred racetrack that opened in 1911. Perhaps more interesting and certainly unexpected, maybe even to those living in the general area, is Dinosaur Park, a rich fossil site where visitors can join paleontologists and volunteers in searching for early Cretaceous fossils.

Back on the Howard County side of the river, dinosaurs also once roamed, as did horses. The horses still do, but not so many dinosaurs anymore. Race horses have long been big business in Maryland and particularly in Howard County. On U.S. Route 1 near North Laurel, the Laurel Raceway opened in 1948 and operated under that name until it was rechristened the Freestate Raceway in 1979. It closed in 1988 and was sold for development as an industrial park. Today, a retail shopping center and car dealership live there, not four miles from that townhome that appears in Ice on the Bay.

But so far as I know, none of my detectives have ever shopped there.

William R. Dudley: Planetary Real Estate Noir

Recently I’ve been reading novels by newer, largely unknown indie writers. By way of helping them along, I’ll be introducing some of them here. These authors are up-and-coming, at varying stages in their development as writers. They may not all have the polish of traditionally published authors, but I think they all have potential and deserve encouragement.

Through nuclear war and environmental degradation, Earth has been all but destroyed. Seeking new homes, humanity has taken to the stars using a marvel of engineering: the Janus Gate. Orbiting the sun where the asteroid belt used to be, the Janus Gate’s space-warping black hole and surrounding containment field catapults pilgrims to worlds far beyond our solar system. But Janus is also a colony in its own right, its concentric levels home to a full cross-section of humanity. Here, powerful ultra-conglomerates double as businesses and government, ruthless criminal syndicates run amok, and ordinary people eke out an existence.

In the lawless outer levels of Janus, former security agent turned freelance bounty hunter Calder is offered a fortune to find the missing son of one of the richest and most powerful women alive. Of course he takes the job. But soon he finds himself neck deep in deception, treachery, gangland war, and unspeakable crimes. Death threatens at every turn, but Calder must see the job through, cost notwithstanding.

The Janus Enigma packs suspense and intense action into a gripping tale of survival and intrigue. It’s well written, too. Author William R. Dudley is a former English teacher, journalist, and editor, so he knows his way around words. I did find some of the dialogue near the end a bit wordy, and on occasion I thought a sentence could have been phrased better, but these are minor quibbles. A bit more significantly, I didn’t entirely buy the young computer whiz Umbra’s emotional episode near the end, and I was a bit disturbed that Calder didn’t notice the parallels between certain of his own actions, which he justifies as necessary collateral damage, and the monstrous crimes he uncovers. Some elements of the ending might have been a bit too pat, as well, but to avoid spoilers I won’t go into detail here. Regardless, the story works, and works well.

Fair warning for those who might take issue: this is a violent story liberally sprinkled with hot vengeance and crude language. Personally I would prefer less of all that, but I won’t factor that preference into my rating, since I seem to be in the minority. In terms of both story and writing, The Janus Enigma falls on the high side of 4 stars. If I don’t give it 5, it’s only because of those few small issues I mentioned above. Well done, sir!

I recently asked William R. Dudley about the novel and his writing. Here’s what he said:

You’ve been involved with words for a long time as a teacher and editor, but this is your first novel. Did you do any writing before this, and if not why did you only get started now?

For thirty years, my writing was confined to the “everyday” business of scripts, copy etc. for radio and television. My job was all-consuming, leaving little, or no, time for “writing for myself.” On occasion, I did exercise my literary ambitions–chiefly in the form of the libretto for a folk-opera “Going For A Soldier”, which was performed at the Edinburgh Fringe way back in the seventies. As I recall, it got a rave review from The Irish Times. I also managed to find time to write a couple of Christmas pantomimes for an Am-Dram group in Jersey (Channel Islands) where I was working, but, I found work–on call 24/7/365–and trying to maintain some semblance of a family-life more than enough. I retired, gratefully, in 2010 and dedicated myself to doing nothing except cooking, playing golf and relaxing, something I hadn’t been able to do for over thirty years. Eventually, I got the idea to write a novel. I have to admit, I fought against it, big time. Writing is bloody hard work and I reckoned I’d done enough of that, thank you. But, like an itch you have to scratch, the idea grew and grew, until, in the end, I decided to give it a go.

What gave you the idea for The Janus Enigma?

Having decided to have a go at writing a novel, I was at a loss as to what the subject would be. From an early age I’ve loved Sci-Fi. I drank a lot of whisky and jotted down a number of ideas. One of them involved The Man Who Sold Planets. I was intrigued by the idea of real estate becoming more than selling houses and tracts of land. Eventually, this idea became a relatively minor character in The Janus Enigma–Mexican Charlie–but it was enough to set me on the path to creating an environment/world in which someone could actually sell you a planet. Added to this basic idea was my love of first-person noir thrillers: Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett etc. The rest, as they say, is history.

I got all the way through the book before realizing I didn’t know protagonist Calder’s first name. I’m terrible with names and thought I’d forgotten it, so I went back through the book but couldn’t find it. Am I missing something?

Sorry you felt it necessary to back-track. I deliberately didn’t give Calder a first name. I feel it adds to the enigmatic nature of the character. Besides, let’s face it, he’s not the most pleasant of characters, so referring to him only by his surname is, perhaps, best. I regard Calder as a flawed “force of nature,” a product of his time and environment and best kept at a distance.

You seemed to be trying to walk a tightrope between Calder’s violent streak, which no doubt arises from his background, and giving him a conscience that prevents him from going too far overboard. Yet sometimes he has to rationalize collateral damage. Without giving anything away, I found it a bit disturbing that those rationalizations were basically the same as those made by one of the key criminals in the story, but Calder didn’t seem to realize it. Could you comment on that?

Wow! When you read, you read. Thank you. I freely admit I struggled with the amoral side to Calder’s character. To be honest, basically, he’s a thug, but a thug with a fairly well-developed, if totally subjective, concept of right and wrong. He will pursue his concept of what is the right thing to do irrespective of the surrounding morality. He’s driven and won’t let anything stand in his way, which is why he has no scruples about killing Rylan Delmonico’s minder, or Azarillo’s guards. If it has to be done, it’s done. He may not feel all that good about it, but, in his mind, the end justifies the means. I actually found it intriguing that, in a way, Calder and the “key criminal” are somewhat similar. I like to think that the climactic confrontation between the two of them raises, in the reader’s mind, the question of whether what the “key criminal” did was justifiable. Calder sees it from his point of view, but is he right?

I see you have a sequel in the works. How far into it are you, and when do you expect to publish it?

The Janus Contract centres on Calder being hunted by the Nemesis Foundation, an organisation of implacable, professional assassins, but just who has hired them to eliminate Calder and how he can manage to stay alive is the big question. The sequel also revisits a key incident in The Janus Enigma and, I hope, provides a big surprise. I’m currently in the final outlining phase. I write my first drafts fairly quickly – 6 to 8 weeks, but then spend months revising, editing and rewriting. I’m hopeful that The Janus Contract will be published around September 2018.

Are you working on anything else?

Come on! I’m seventy years old. I read the obituaries in the newspaper every day and, if I’m not mentioned, I get out of bed and either cook, play golf, potter about my garden, or write. I’m far too old and tired to entertain any thoughts of a “writing career.” I just want to write stories which, I hope, people will enjoy reading. End of.

What advice do you have for writers or readers?

For writers: WRITE! Just get it down. It may be a load of bilge, but, once you have something on paper (or on file) you have a beginning. The actual writing of that first draft is relatively easy. The real work starts when you revisit it to edit, rewrite and revise. That’s when your skill as a writer emerges and you exercise your craft. I revised/edited The Janus Enigma 57 times (I have every iteration – the first 14 are crap!). The best problem to have as a writer is when you revise your work for the umpteenth time and, at the end of it, realise you’ve changed perhaps a dozen words and rephrased a couple of sentences. That’s when you bite the bullet and say “Enough!” Of course, it’s not “finished.” It never will be, but life’s too short…

For readers: if you aren’t hooked by the first ten pages (God, that’s generous) go away. Read something else, play a round of golf, cook a splendid meal, watch TV, go to the theatre, play Skyrim, whatever. Increasingly, the attention span of people is diminishing. God bless Twitter, Facebook, et al. Don’t waste time on struggling through something which doesn’t engage you. There’s more than enough out there which you will find engaging.

Where can readers find you?

I have a website: http://www.thejanusgate.com. I don’t do Facebook, Twitter, or any of the so-called “social media”. Essentially, I’m a rather old-fashioned private person. I’ll share my writing with the world, but very little else.

The Edge of the County

Howard County, Maryland is a diverse place. It hosts business and commerce and agriculture. Its population densities range from fairly rural to well-packed suburban. And although on average it is one of the better-off placed in Maryland, rich and middle class and poor alike call it home.

Its land, too, is diverse. Situated on the Piedmont, the hilly plateau between the Atlantic coastal plain and the Appalachian Mountains, the Piedmont (literally “foothills”)  is the remains of several ancient mountain chains, which makes it geologically complex.  For those of us living on the rolling surface, the region can be most beautiful, at least when not overcome by human development.

But sometimes nature and humanity work together. The southern border of Howard County falls along the Patuxent River, which at the midpoint of its course alongside the county flares into Triadelphia Reservoir, created in 1943 by the construction of Brighton Dam. Dam and reservoir are managed by the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC), an inter-county agency that handles drinking water and wastewater treatment for Montgomery and Prince George’s Counties. The reservoir provides drinking water to those jurisdictions, but oddly not to most of Howard County. A small portion of southeastern Howard County is served by WSSC, but most of the eastern half of the county gets its water from Baltimore, while the western half relies on private wells.

WSSC maintains recreational facilities around the reservoir, too. Hiking, picnicking, fishing, boating, horseback riding, and hunting are all available. Only self-powered or battery powered vessels are allowed on the lake, of course, to protect water quality, and permits are required.

Among the recreational facilities on the Triadelphia property is an azalea garden near the dam, featuring over 22,000 azalea bushes sited in a 5 acre hardwood forest. I’ve never been there, and might not be anytime soon. My wife is allergic to the darn things.  But for azalea lovers, it must be quite a place to visit. It’s a collection that probably rivals that of the National Arboretum in Washington, D.C.

Unfortunately, the azalea garden is temporarily closed. Brighton Dam is currently undergoing maintenance to ensure its future life. Although structurally sound, it’s over 70 years old.  Most of us need a bit of work by that point in our lives! The collection will presumably open to the public again after the work is complete.

Detective Lieutenant Rick Peller and crew haven’t been sighted in the vicinity of Triadelphia Reservoir so far, but one never knows. In the future, clues to some dastardly crime might just turn up in the surrounding woods. Meanwhile, pay the area a visit yourself if you happen to get down that way.

Lokesh Sharma’s “Halfway”: A Bizarre Afterlife

Recently I’ve been reading novels by newer, largely unknown indie writers. By way of helping them along, I’ll be introducing some of them here. These authors are up-and-coming, at varying stages in their development as writers. They may not all have the polish of traditionally published authors, but I think they all have potential and deserve encouragement.

An old rule of science fiction writing states that an author is allowed one independent miracle per story. In Halfway, Lokesh Sharma and Anubhav Sharma hit us with a real doozy: your memories are being harvested, and after you die you are remade with an engineered body and a little bracelet that connects you to those saved memories. Thus reborn into a world called Enigma, you are judged for your actions during your Earthly life and either admitted into the paradise of Elysium or condemned to the torment of Hell. But these realms are not religious/spiritual realms. Rather, they are technological realms situated in a distant part of the galaxy. Pardon the pun, but how the hell did that come about? We aren’t told, and for now it doesn’t matter. Independent miracle. Just sit back and enjoy the ride!

And it is an amazing ride. Like their authors, the key characters hail from India and have backstories bound up with the customs and history of that land. Dev, a young computer wiz who pulled himself out of a suicidal funk by entering into an illegal cell phone scam with his over-the-top pal Sid, faces Hell because he was killed when he ran in front of a truck with an old suicide note in his pocket. An open and shut case, except he didn’t kill himself at all. His death was a tragic accident. Meanwhile, a young woman named Aparna is in similarly deep trouble. After her enraged father killed her boyfriend in front of her for the crime of dating Aparna, she retaliated by murdering him. Worse, she’s now killed two of the locals in Enigma, although in self-defense. But in Enigma, justice can be as elusive as on Earth. In fact, the “afterlife” doesn’t seem all that different from Earth, riddled with politics, corruption, lust, murder, and other lesser crimes and sins. Worse still, lurking in the background is the specter of war as Hell’s self-appointed queen Phoenix prepares to attack Enigma. This is an amazingly good story given that the premise makes absolutely no sense. I found it hard to stop reading. Even better (or flummoxing, depending on how you feel about it), this is book 1 in the Aspiration for Deliverance series, and in some ways it’s not a complete story. The lives of Dev and Aparna don’t intersect at all. This is just the set-up for whatever comes next. But it works, so long as you’re willing to wait for book 2, where at least some questions will presumably be answered.

In spite of my raving, this is not a perfect book. It’s a first novel by a pair of indie writers, and as usually happens the writing could stand some editing. Not that it’s terrible. It’s among the better-written first indie novels that I’ve read. But it could do with a fair bit of tightening. Some material needs reorganization for clarity, and many of the information dumps should be cleaned up. The description is a bit klunky. There are too many sound effects for my taste (I’d get rid of them all, guys, and write some engaging action instead). Oh, and many of those hyphenations and capitalizations shouldn’t be there. Nevertheless, it’s a good start to a uniquely weird story.

I recently asked Lokesh Sharma about the novel and his writing. Here’s what he said:

You co-wrote this story with your brother Anubhav. Which of you got the idea for the “Aspirations for Deliverance” series and where did it come from?

Before I answer this question, I would like to thank you for this opportunity. I read your review of Halfway, and I found it to be very insightful.

About the question: I had this concept in my mind for a while before I decided to put it into words a couple years ago. I have been fascinated with the idea of a life after death since I was a little kid, and my fascination continued to grow with age. There are about 4,200 religions on Earth, and although they are different from each other in many ways, most of them hold the belief that there is a life after death, and I found that very interesting.

There are a number of books written on the afterlife, and I’ve seen some movies made on this concept as well, so I knew that the idea itself wasn’t very special, unless I presented this story in a very unique way. I realized that the best way to do it was to show it in a different light, which is why I decided to transform this idea into a science fiction story. It made sense because if there is a place called Heaven, ruled by someone that created us and this whole universe, then it must be way more advanced in terms of technology than our world.

How do you and Anubhav organize your collaboration? Do you each write particular scenes, for example?

I had already finished the first draft before my brother joined me in the project. I discussed the story with him and he pointed out a couple flaws in it, and then from first draft onwards, we worked on the project together. The benefit of working with him, I found, was that he didn’t cushion the blow when giving me feedback. If he hated something about my book (a particular scene, a character, etc.) he said it to my face. Hurting my feelings is the least of his concerns. *Laughs*

Halfway is unusual in that the stories of the two main characters, Dev and Aparna, don’t intersect. Will that happen in the next book in the series? Were you concerned that letting them lead unconnected lives in the first book might be too risky?

Definitely! The stories of Dev and Aparna will intersect in the next book, but in a very unusual manner. And yes, we were a little concerned that letting Dev and Aparna lead unconnected lives in book 1 might be risky, but it was a risk we were willing to take. This was our debut novel, and given that we had no previous experience in writing, we weren’t sure if readers would find the book interesting. Well, I strongly believed that they would, but then I’m sure that every person who ever wrote a book thought the same way about their book!

Anubhav is more practical than I am, and he kept telling me not to get my hopes too high. Although I still thought my book was great, I didn’t see the point in writing a book so long that readers would find it hard to finish if they didn’t like it. So I thought it best to keep it short, and I’m glad I did because now that I have received some reviews, I know which things I need to work on in my next book to make it even better.

Had either of you written or published anything prior to Halfway?

No, Halfway is our debut novel.

How many books will be in this series? When will the next one be available?

When I started this project, I thought of writing a trilogy, but given how much some people dislike cliffhangers, I’m now thinking of wrapping it up in my second book, which is expected to be released around the end of year 2018. However, if I have more story ideas in which I can use the same world, I may write them as stand-alones.

Are you working on anything else?

I do have a couple ideas in mind, and I have started brainstorming on one of them. It’s a high fantasy novel called Apex of the Dark Age. I can’t say much about it yet as the idea isn’t fully developed. All I can say is that it’s a story about a fictional war between God and Satan.

Where can readers find you?

On Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, and at my Amazon Author Page.

The Rural Side of Howard County

If you stick to the eastern side of Howard County, you won’t see anything rural about it. Aside from the swath of forest along the Patapsco River to the northeast, where the Patapsco Valley State Park straddles the county line, the area is well developed. Businesses and residential neighborhoods cluster along the Interstate 95 corridor stretching from Baltimore to Washington, D.C., including Hanover, Elkridge, Jessup, Savage, and North Laurel. Two other major thoroughfares parallel I95 to the east: U.S. Route 1 and, in Anne Arundel County, Maryland Route 295, the Baltimore-Washington Parkway. These three key connectors funnel large amounts of traffic between the two cities and serve all points in between.

To the west of I95, one more key highway runs roughly north-south: U.S. 29, which connects Ellicott City with Columbia and  communities to the south, eventually passing through Silver Spring and into the heart of Washington. But one or two miles west of U.S. 29, the population begins to thin out, and you enter the rural side of Howard County. Here you’ll find less residential housing and more active farmland. This isn’t the Midwest, with its vast tracts of open fields and ten or fewer souls per square mile, but the farms are there.

According to Howard County’s Economic Development Authority, one-quarter of the county’s land is farmland, supporting agricultural sales in excess of $200 million annually. The U.S.D.A. offered a rather lower estimate in 2012, although the county may have been including sales other than crops and livestock, the only items the U.S.D.A considered. For example, horses are big business in Maryland, home of the Preakness Stakes, and Howard County has more horses per acre than any other county in the country. Boarding and training services surely bring in a lot of cash.

In some of these less developed areas, expensive housing has replaced farmland.  West Friendship (which readers of my novel True Death will recognize as the general area where Sandra Peller was killed in a hit-and-run) attracted a fair bit of this sort of development, as has Clarksville and some other areas. Other locales feature more ordinary housing, particularly those strung along the major north-south state routes: 32, 97, and 94. Fields and pastures fill in the gaps between these residential areas, as can readily be seen in satellite photos of the county. But those fields don’t go on for miles and miles. Before too long, you’ll hit another cluster of housing.

Way out in the northwest corner of the county, there is a curiosity. Here, the county lines intersect in a very strange way. The northern boundary of Howard County tracks westward along the south branch of the Patapsco river to its headwaters in an underground pond called Parr’s Spring. Parr’s Spring is, roughly speaking, the meeting point of four Maryland counties: Howard, Carroll, Frederick, and Montgomery. But Montgomery County’s boundary forms a spike thrusting northeastward toward the spring until it vanishes in a point a bit short of that spot. As a result, there are one or two properties that, according to the maps at any rate, straddle the three counties of Howard, Montgomery, and Frederick.

I’ve wondered for several years now how those people are billed for property taxes!