N.S. Dolkart's Blog, page 4

This is Not a Drill

Among the Fallen is out in stores right now! You can go buy it! I also have some great readings and talks lined up, so check out my events page if you’d like to hear me speak and get yourself a signed copy.

Another great piece of news I received recently is that I’ve been accepted as a panelist for Readercon this summer! I love Readercon, so this is really exciting for me. The discussions are always incredibly substantive, and the people are great. Plus Nnedi Okorafor is one of their guests of honor this year, which is so freaking cool. If you haven’t read anything of hers, you should really get on that.

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Among The Fallen is on NetGalley!

Calling all reviewers, book bloggers, and librarians! Among the Fallen is currently on NetGalley just waiting for you to get your free copy and tell the world what you think! So if you liked Silent Hall – hell, even if you didn’t! – hie thee thither and check it out!

Looking forward to April

I was halfway through writing a new blog post the other night when my wife said, “Hey, shouldn’t you be sending that to the publicist instead?”

Why, pray tell? Because we’re already at the cusp of publicity season for Among the Fallen, which comes out April 4th! So all my clever thoughts are getting run by the publicist first, so she can determine if I ought to post them myself or send them to other people as guest blog posts.

But fear not! I have other news for you. I’ve recently updated my News page to reflect all the various events I’ll be doing to celebrate the launch of my second published novel. Head over there and take a look!

Art & Theology at Fantasy Faction

Have you seen the beautiful cover of my second book, Among the Fallen? If you haven’t, head on over to Fantasy Faction and check it out! I can’t tell you how pleased I am with it – it’s everything I had hoped it would be. You have to see it.

I loved the cover so much, I spent some time this week perusing the artist’s portfolio at AndreasRocha.com, where I made another awesome discovery: Andreas has also done art for Magic cards! New side quest: collect all of the magic cards he’s done and use them in a deck (it should be easy – he’s mostly done lands).

But back to Among the Fallen (and back to Fantasy Faction) – FF has just put out a guest blog post I wrote about the theology of my series, so if you need a refresher (or just want to spend a little extra time in my world) you can check that out too!

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Among the Fallen, book two of the Godserfs series, comes out April 4th. It is already available for pre-order at your favorite bookstore. If you would like to hear me speak – and buy a signed copy – check out my News page for upcoming public appearances.

Review: Stay Crazy

I don’t get enough time to read nowadays, and by “not enough time,” I mean that I can basically only read on the odd Friday night when I manage not to fall asleep after both kids have already succumbed. So when I purchased Stay Crazy, I was relieved to find that it was such a slim volume. Maybe sixty, seventy thousand words tops? I can manage that in one sitting! If I don’t sleep much, anyway.

It took me until 2:30am, and I enjoyed every minute. Satifka doesn’t waste too much time getting us to Savertown USA, the Walmart-like superstore where all the action happens, but by that time she’s already established our main character Em well enough that we understand where she’s coming from and can usually tell a hallucination from reality. Usually.

The plot is fun if occasionally predictable, but the greatest strength of Stay Crazy is its incredible depiction of paranoid delusions and the way those delusions mix with the sci-fi element to keep both Em and the reader off their game. Once we’ve accepted that there is an interdimensional being talking to Em, and another one making people kill themselves, every subsequent delusion becomes at least somewhat plausible. Escodex says there’s an evil mind-controlling entity around somewhere, but he doesn’t know exactly where. Could it be the TV quack psychiatrist Wes Summersby? Maybe! The reverend who leads Jackie’s cultish church? Quite possibly! Is Em being paranoid? Absolutely.

I don’t have much experience with schizophrenia, but working with dementia patients I have witnessed plenty of clinical-level paranoia, delusions, and hallucinations up close and personal. I have also been present for manic episodes among friends. At least from my limited experience as a witness and caregiver, the depictions in Stay Crazy ring true. There are plenty of times when Em sees and hears things that aren’t there, and she knows they’re not there, but that doesn’t make them any less distressing. Boy have I seen that with some Parkinson’s patients. There are times when her practical concerns are overwhelmed by mania and magical thinking. I’ve seen that too, and at least from the outside, Satifka’s writing looks spot-on.

The premise is great, the execution is great, the book is great. Highly recommended.

Donald Trump, Dinosaurs, and the Holocaust

When I was a kid, maybe nine or ten, I had a nightmare that informed the way I live my life, and the way I conceive of safety. I was stuck in some kind of a Jurassic Park-type situation, chased through a multi-level industrial building by man-eating dinosaurs. I still remember the fluorescent lighting and the metal-grate stairs, and the feeling that there were several other people trying to escape the dinosaurs too, but not in any kind of coherent group. It was every man and every kid for himself.

Chased through this labyrinth, I found an elevator and dove in, hoping for shelter. When I turned around, my brother was running toward the closing doors, hoping to get in with me. The “Door Open” button was right there, but I didn’t press it. Instead I cried, “Sorry!” as the door closed, too afraid of being eaten to protect my own big brother.

Then a T-Rex tore open the door and ate me anyway.

As a young Jewish boy, the grandchild of a “hidden child” holocaust survivor and the great-nephew and great-grandchild of holocaust non-survivors, I grew up still very much in the shadow of that 20th century horror. Holocaust narratives, both fictional and biographical, were everywhere. The first graphic novel I ever read was Maus. For me and my contemporaries, it was natural to concoct fantasies of how we might have survived those times, had we been there.

After this dream, I stopped fantasizing about survival.

When you read enough holocaust survival narratives, the true theme that emerges is that people survived more through luck than anything else. I don’t mean to minimize the considerable skill that was often involved in staying under the radar – my own grandmother learned three languages fluently so that she’d be able to blend into Belgian society without suspicion. But most of those who perished – and nearly everyone did – were not killed for lack of skill or virtue. They just got unlucky.

After the dream, I rethought the “game” of survival, and came to terms with the fact that had I been there, I would almost certainly have been among the unlucky majority. Once I had reconciled with the inevitability of my death, my focus shifted from the question of how to survive, to the question of how to retain my humanity in the face of fear.

For many American Jews, including myself, the election of Donald Trump fills us with existential terror. The candidate openly endorsed by the KKK and other white supremacist anti-semitic groups has won the White House, and he’s an authoritarian whose party has achieved universal dominance up and down the ballot. Even before the election, the FBI was already functioning partially as his secret police. Not only can It happen here, but it very well might.

I spoke recently with the same friend whose comment had prompted this post a few months ago about fleeing an (at the time only potential) Donald Trump presidency. She said she had since read my post and appreciated it, but what can we do, practically speaking? What good can we really hope to accomplish, besides keeping our families safe?

I had some ideas and suggestions, but the basic truth is that I don’t know. It sort of depends how bad things get, both for us and for others. It could get really bad. But there’s no escaping the power of an antisemitic United States, and if the dinosaur is going to get me anyway, by God I’m going to hit Door Open.

Book Giveaway!

In honor of my birthday later this week, I’m doing another giveaway for a copy of Silent Hall! Enter any time between now and Thursday the 8th, for a chance to have a free signed copy mailed to your door. DOOOOOOOOO IIIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTT!!!

Goodreads Book Giveaway


Silent Hall
by N.S. Dolkart

Giveaway ends September 08, 2016.

See the giveaway details

at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

A Common Misunderstanding of HRC’s Strategy

I went on a massive Twitter rant this morning while I should have been writing book 2 (it’ll be done on time! I promise!), and I figure, now that I’ve spent all this time ranting about this, I may as well get some more mileage out of it by putting it up on my website. It all started with an article in Slate by Will Saletan, in which he points out that Hillary Clinton’s recent “alt-right” speech sought to make Donald Trump unacceptable to mainstream Republicans, but didn’t try to tie down-ballot GOPers to him. So far so good, but Saletan then makes the analytical error of assuming this means she’ll be more conciliatory with Congressional Republicans. Take it away, me!

I disagree with a fundamental premise of this article, and many that are like it. That premise is this… https://t.co/xMWpJ2pzsr

— N. S. Dolkart (@N_S_Dolkart) August 26, 2016

that a candidate’s inclusive rhetorical choices signal future strategy. That because HRC didn’t tie Ryan, Priebus et al to Trump THIS time..

— N. S. Dolkart (@N_S_Dolkart) August 26, 2016

it means she won’t in future, or doesn’t have it in for down-ballot Republicans. BS. Why are we pretending that HRC is running alone?

— N. S. Dolkart (@N_S_Dolkart) August 26, 2016

The reason she’s not tying Trump to down-ballot GOPers is that it’s not her job. Her job is to paint Trump as unacceptable & run up margins

— N. S. Dolkart (@N_S_Dolkart) August 26, 2016

that make it nearly impossible for GOPers running in his shadow to use him as cover. If some of their voters stay home in disgust, that’s…

— N. S. Dolkart (@N_S_Dolkart) August 26, 2016

an added bonus. But the point is to make @realDonaldTrump look radical, unacceptable, unprecedented. “Beyond the pale” unlike standard GOP.

— N. S. Dolkart (@N_S_Dolkart) August 26, 2016

This isn’t offering down-ballot GOPers and congressional leaders a fig leaf, people! HRC is just playing her part in the great Dem tag team.

— N. S. Dolkart (@N_S_Dolkart) August 26, 2016

Here’s how it goes:

1) It’s her job to make Trump unacceptable even to Republicans and right-leaning independents.

— N. S. Dolkart (@N_S_Dolkart) August 26, 2016

2) Down-ballot Dems then take the necessary steps to tie their individual opponents to Trump. Can Hassan tie Ayotte to him? You betcha.

— N. S. Dolkart (@N_S_Dolkart) August 26, 2016

Once HRC has made Trump uniquely unacceptable, every individual GOPer who has endorsed him comes under fire. Just not from her.

— N. S. Dolkart (@N_S_Dolkart) August 26, 2016

3) Dem Congressional leaders follow suit with their counterparts. Remember how Harry Reid made the case at the DNC that Trump was GOP norm?

— N. S. Dolkart (@N_S_Dolkart) August 26, 2016

And all the pundits were going, “hey, Harry Reid is going off-script here, since the DNC has been all about how Trump is NOT classic GOP!”

— N. S. Dolkart (@N_S_Dolkart) August 26, 2016

Duh, no, he wasn’t off script. That’s HIS script, which (amazingly!) is different from HRC’s. They share a unified goal, but they’re…

— N. S. Dolkart (@N_S_Dolkart) August 26, 2016

position players. Reid is the catcher to HRC’s pitcher, or whatever sports metaphor speaks to you. So coming back to @saletan ‘s article…

— N. S. Dolkart (@N_S_Dolkart) August 26, 2016

 

@saletan it’s not that HRC is offering GOP a lifeboat. She’s just setting the ball for her colleagues to spike it (volleyball metaphor now!)

— N. S. Dolkart (@N_S_Dolkart) August 26, 2016

 

Thank you for indulging this rant about basic pundit misunderstandings of campaign strategy. I should really get back to writing my book.

— N. S. Dolkart (@N_S_Dolkart) August 26, 2016

Yes, I Read My Reviews

It has become a maxim among published authors that you shouldn’t read your reviews. “Stay off of Goodreads!” people say. “They’re mean there!”

I never listen to that advice, and I’d like to explain why.

The main argument for not reading your reviews is twofold:

1) Reading reviews of your books can distract you from the real work of producing more books.

2) Reviews are not meant for authors, but for other readers. They’re a dialogue of which we are not / should not be a part.

Now, as a friend pointed out recently, there are people for whom this is excellent advice, and those people greatly benefit from the way Don’t Read Your Reviews is reinforced within writing circles. We authors are a stereotypically neurotic bunch, and we might easily be paralyzed by some hateful – or, worse, insightful – critique we see on the internet. For many, that’s a risk not worth taking.

But for me, I’ll read every review I can find. Sure, it can be distracting, and yes, a bad review can ruin my day, but the feedback of actual readers is incredibly valuable. It’s amazing to me that so many of us expect to improve our craft over time without ever internalizing the critiques of those who did not enjoy our writing. You’ll never be able to please everyone, of course, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take note of the common themes shared by critiques of your work, especially those that are common to both your detractors and your fans. That’s valuable data, and we ignore it at our own peril.

Now, there’s an argument to be made that since A) everyone has different tastes and B) the reading public is large enough that a writer can be extremely successful while pleasing only a small fraction of it, therefore we should pay more attention to what our fans like about our writing than to what our critics dislike about it. But when baseball players want to improve, they don’t watch video playbacks of themselves hitting the ball. They watch the at-bats where they missed.

In this sense, the fact that reviews are not for us is beside the point. That argument serves well to explain why we authors shouldn’t respond to reviews, but it does nothing to explain why we shouldn’t pay attention to them. Reviews are learning experiences! With every review, we are given the opportunity to eavesdrop on a conversation about what makes our writing good, and what makes it flawed – why should we pass that up?

Panel Discussion – The Bible as Fantasy Literature

Here’s another panel from Arisia 2016. It took me a while to verify that I had permission to post it, but now here it is at long last! Enjoy!