R.E. Johnston's Blog, page 2
October 14, 2018
Two Moons: Reading at Leaves Books and Tea Shop in Support of Fort Worth Arts Goggle
The 2018 Fort Worth Near Southside “Arts Goggle” is coming Saturday, October 20, from noon to 10pm. Much of the visual art and music events will be on the magnificently renovated Magnolia Street, but this year some will also be held in the now-developing South Main Village.
Notable in South Main Village is Leaves Books and Tea Shop (120 St. Louis Ave. #101.) A fusion of curated books and fantastic teas, Leaves is operated by Tina Howard. The shop is brand new–its grand opening was September 1– but it has hit the ground running. Leaves, Tina, is providing great support for Arts Goggle by bringing in local writers to present their books throughout the event.
I’m pleased Tina has invited me to be one of those writers. On October 20 I’ll be hanging around from 6 to 8 pm, and starting at 7:30 will be reading from Two Moons: Memories from a World with One.
Please, drop in!
Reading nook at Leaves Books and Tea Shop
October 5, 2018
NaNoWriMo is right around the corner
“NaNoWriMo” is National Novel Writing Month. November. The goal is to write a rough draft of 50,000 words in 30 days. It’s not easy, but the non-profit National Novel Writing Month folks can help you make it happen.
Here’s my advice:
Before November
Sign up for NaNoWriMo at https://nanowrimo.org. It’s free!
Gather your tools (suggestion: laptop, MS Word, spiral notebook)
Decide if you’re a planner, a pantser or a plantser (see the website above for details)
Plan your novel (suggestion: use a recent bestseller as a template)
Genre (cozy mystery, space opera, medieval romance…)
Audience (teenagers, middle-aged women…)
Themes (How will it feel? What are you wanting to express?)
World (when, where, external forces, problems, opportunities)
Characters (short names; details, even ones only you will ever know)
Relationships (character-character, group-group, character-world…)
Plot threads (where planner versus pantser matters most)
Working title (required to get the NaNoWriMo stats)
In November
Bid your family farewell
Battle through your mental blocks
Update the details of your plan as you go
Every day report your word count and back up your files
Write the rough draft of that novel trapped inside you
After November
Well, post-NaNoWriMo is another discussion, but rest assured it will start with addressing the word “rough.”
September 25, 2018
Audio is coming!
Narration is well underway for the audio book of Two Moons: Memories from a World with One.
Daniel Jones stood out in the narrator auditions and, happily, he accepted the role. His work is outstanding, notably with the voices of the book’s diverse characters. For example, every female character in Two Moons has a strong personality (possibly saying something about the author’s family) and Dan conveys that strength without brassiness or belligerence. Go Dan—just 24 chapters left!
The audio book is scheduled to be released through Findaway Voices in November.
July 28, 2018
Go 23andMe!
Genetic testing firm 23andMe recently made this announcement: GSK and 23andMe sign agreement to leverage genetic insights for the development of novel medicines.
Since making this announcement, 23andMe has taken considerable heat for sharing data about its customers. Profiting off someone else’s body, threatening privacy, and so on, and so on.
Spoiler: I think it’s great news.
Five years ago my family and I spit into 23andMe’s little vials and sent them in. Why?
First, for fun. Doesn’t everyone want to know how much of their DNA is Neanderthal?
Second, for health insights. 23andMe can provide a LOT of information about what diseases a person has a genetic disposition toward. This info does not come unbidden. For each disease the customer must click a button saying, yes, they’re prepared and they do understand they can’t un-know the facts once they see them.
Third, to promote research. It’s a choice, but opting in allows the data (untraceable to the individual) to be shared with researchers and drug companies.
We waited for a few weeks then got our results.
It really was fun seeing the Neanderthal numbers, as well as where across the world our ancestors have lived. Then most of us ripped through all the diseases to see what mortal threats we might be facing. Most of us, but not all. One of us decided to only look at non-fatal diseases and leave the rest as something best not known.
Our data is out there forever. 23andMe regularly updates our reports as they get more insight on what DNA patterns reveal what. More importantly, they continue use the data to serve humanity.
MY DNA will now be used by GSK to develop better products to treat human diseases. Since they are using MY data, it follows that MY diseases are more likely to be addressed. MY health is more likely to be improved. MY life expectancy is more likely to be extended.
Go for it, 23andMe! Get my data into the hands of people like GSK who can use it to improve life for me and everyone else. Make piles of money, stay excited, and push it even more. What a tremendous return on my investment of money and spit.
One other note. The 23andMe report handed me a tremendous surprise. Family legend had always held that my mother’s mother’s mother, on back forever, was Cherokee. Not so. She was West African, undoubtedly brought to America as a slave. What a wake-up call for this southern white male. Pondering what she (and her daughter and granddaughter…) endured has affected me deeply. She was an inspiration for Two Moons.
July 19, 2018
Two Moons: NOW LIVE ON KINDLE!
Two Moons: Memories from a World with One — the ebook went live on Amazon this morning!
Two Moons’ ebook release price is $3.99, and it’s also available free (for now) through Kindle Unlimited. It joins the hardcover and paperback, already available everywhere.
Why is the ebook not available anywhere but Amazon? Kindle Unlimited. While a small publisher’s ebook is listed in KU it can’t be listed anywhere else, not even on the author’s website. For printed books, no problem, as the rule just affects ebooks. Gazebo Bookworks, Two Moons’ publisher, is as small as they come, so the choice is KU or the highway.
Two Moons will be available to read for free in Kindle Unlimited for a least three months. Beyond that? Not sure, but the highway may beckon.
Still, the big news: TWO MOONS HAS ROLLED OUT!
Click here to watch the trailer.
July 17, 2018
Proofing
The best stage of preparing for a book release is reviewing the printer’s proofs. There is something especially exciting about having the baby spring from the computer screen and appear IRL. Ah, that new book smell!
The proof review went well–all systems are go with both the paperback and the hardcover. You can give them a look at Amazon (click here).
July 1, 2018
A sparkling debut that leaves the reader’s mental wheels turning. – Kirkus Reviews
Full Kirkus Review:
TWO MOONS
Memories from a World with One
by RE Johnston
Some memories risk doing more harm than good in this cerebral debut novel of speculative fiction.
Jay Shipman’s life is pretty standard, if nerdy, teenage fare, as he navigates his ambitions toward a prestigious science camp, position on a popular video game leaderboard, and feelings for Twila Mason, his quirky crush. But the twin moons above Jay’s sleepy town put the lie to this apparent familiarity, and Jay’s world, Duorth, has plenty more to set it apart from our own. The most obvious and incredible feature of Duorth is that its people are aware of Earth. In fact, they’re reincarnations of earthlings and even dream their memories of past lives. But when Jay begins to have these recollections himself, the contents threaten to upend his life entirely and throw all understanding of his world and ours out of balance. Recalling a life as a scientist working on a biological weapon—a veritable doomsday device—for an authoritarian government forces Jay to question his own affinity for biological science and epidemiology. And the apparent brilliance of his abused, frightened past self threatens to draw the eyes of the governments of Duorth’s three great nations and reshape the world as he knows it for all time. The storytelling here unfolds adeptly, although the dialogue occasionally falters: “Jay, your name tag says you’re here for biology. What kind of biology stuff are you interested in?” Jay’s inquisitive nature makes for an engaging protagonist, but the real star is the worldbuilding. Duorth could easily appear as a broad caricature of modern life on Earth. Instead, it’s a fascinating world with its own unique slants on religion, geopolitics, and education, particularly when it comes to the study of past lives and the way Duorthians depend on them for scientific and cultural advancement. Also, these details are all delivered seamlessly, without the need for long, clumsy exposition.
A sparkling debut that leaves the reader’s mental wheels turning.
Page count: 207pp
Publisher: Gazebo Bookworks
Program: Kirkus Indie
Review Posted Online: June 23rd, 2018
SIMILAR BOOKS SUGGESTED BY OUR CRITICS:
DARK MATTER by Blake Crouch
PREY by Michael Crichton
FEED by M.T. Anderson
TWO MOONS – SPECULATIVE AT ITS BEST! – Susan Stradiotto at Truly Novel Reviews
From Truly Novel Reviews:
TWO MOONS – SPECULATIVE AT ITS BEST!
July 1, 2019
Two Moons, Memories from a World with One
by: RE Johnston
Review Rating: 4/5 YA, 4.5/5 Adult
Two Moons is a fascinating read following characters that our youth can identify with, and it brings so many social, religious, and political concepts to light. It is a study in science, reincarnation, and the value of knowledge told through the lens of a main character who could only possibly have this much wisdom through the inheritance of another’s memories. It has the depth of character and connection to family and young love that ground it in our reality today while allowing your imagination to accept what might be were all of these concepts a reality.
I believe this story has wide appeal. Adults will enjoy the thought provoking study in the socio-political environment while young adults will identify with the adolescent who enjoys video games, his friends, and his girlfriend. In literature, I consider this the type of story that should be introduced into curriculum as it teaches on a broad spectrum of societal factors and makes you think about what might be if only.
RE Johnston also introduces some humor through simple observation that plays nicely to build his world. For example, after having some Texas Toast, Jay Shipman (the main character) says,
“He wasn’t even sure what Texas was, but he sure liked the toast.”
Family dynamics play a nice role in Johnston’s story, and it’s nice to see a functional family unit featuring in a novel rather than a broken one. I was enamored with the sibling banter, as Jay thinks about his sister, Portia, whose memories from her past life are being a whale:
“I guess it makes sense you were something with a really big mouth.”
As an adult reader, I also found cynical humor in some of the naïve conversation of adolescents regarding assumptions about what governments will and will not do:
Vlad said, “That would be stupid. I’m sure my government would never cut people off from talking with each other.”
Jay agreed, “Yeah, mine either.”
Later that day both boys were proven wrong.
As I was reading, I highlighted so many quotes that were simply poignant. All-in-all, I think the message around the power of knowledge is one point that resonated the best for me, and conversely where the real weakness lies:
“The greatest power on Duorth lies in our shared knowledge, both our recollections of Earthly genius, as well as what we learn in this life.”
“…the weaknesses…didn’t lie in knowledge but rather in our inability to grasp the fundamental truths that seem always just beyond our reach.”
You can get your copy today on Amazon here:
Amazon
As always, looking forward to the next page!
June 30, 2018
Two Moons receives great reviews from Readers’ Favorite!
Yesterday Two Moons‘ Readers’ Favorite reviews were posted on the RF site (here). Three of the reviews were awarded five stars, which qualifies the book for the Readers’ Favorite Five Star designation. Here’s the first of the reviews:
Reviewed by Divine Zape for Readers’ Favorite (5 STARS)
What happens if we have clear memories of our past lives and what if those memories are not the best of memories we would like to have? In Two Moons: Memories from a World with One by RE Johnston, we are introduced to a world where inhabitants once lived on Earth, and now they assume a new life without completely losing touch with what they once were on Earth. They have dreams that are called memories and these can help them connect with the gifts they used while on Earth. Young Jay Shipman starts having recollections of his previous life, but they are not good ones — they are memories associated with the creation of a product of mass murder. He recalls heading a team tasked to develop a powerful biochemical product that can destroy life and create a contagion. He recalls killing “herself” to save her family. But can these thoughts help him in his new life in Duorth? Follow this young schoolboy as he becomes the inspiration for the change that will affect whole peoples, an adventure in which his sense of responsibility will be tested, friendships developed, and a new path pursued.
Two Moons: Memories from a World with One is a brilliant novel with a very interesting concept behind it. I have read a lot about reincarnation and the “next life,” but have hardly read something close to this. It’s set on a different planet that has a lot of similarities to ours. The characters are interesting. The protagonist, who was a she in the previous life, is inspired to create meaning by empowering the people of his planet to stand up for their rights. I fell in love with Carlos, a friend he meets on an adventure that becomes part of his learning journey and transformation. In fact, Carlos speaks about his previous life in a humorous way and describes his profession as “hacking into the systems of banks and places like that.” The writing is great, the plot wonderful and the characters mesmerizing. RE Johnston transports readers into interesting landscapes and beautiful worlds, and invites them to redefine life. Jay is a character of second chances and many readers will feel inspired by him.
June 29, 2018
Two Moons just went live in paperback
Two Moons: Memories from a World With One is now a real, published book! It went live on Amazon last night. The listing is not even yet completely populated, not even a “look inside” option, but there it is out in the wild world of ‘Zon.
