S. Kirk Pierzchala's Blog, page 6

Thankfully, a Sale!!

Sorry I haven't posted for awhile (if you'll recall, I promised I wouldn't spam you when you opted-in on my mailing list)!

I'm still alive and busy writing, and so thankful for making it this far through another...er... "eventful" year!

I'm also grateful for my many, many readers and their enthusiastic comments, so to celebrate, the first two installments of the "Beyond Cascadia" series (ebooks ONLY) are offered as free or .99 for the remainder of 2021!

Round out the year with some fun reads and happy Thanksgiving!

Catching Up...

It's been a busy few months all around, not counting the craziness happening nationally and globally! I'm happy to finally announce that a hardback copy of Eclipse Rising has gone to a lucky winner in Washington State.

The ebook version of Eclipse Rising is currently on sale for .99 at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo and here on this site, so if you want a nice, thick epic to round out the last days of summer, check it out!

And here's some more of the amazing feedback this novel is receiving from readers:

Five out of Five Stars!

"Although Eclipse Rising explores and highlights a world of advanced technology and surveillance, the characters remain decisively human and ultimately relatable for the reader. The plot is expertly immersed in a technologically advanced world, while the characters, in their unique and complex personalities and development, drive the story forward to a satisfying conclusion. With vivid imagery, an extraordinary sense of time and place, and prose that is almost poetic at times, Eclipse Rising captivates and entertains. The ending is well-done and leaves Eclipse Rising lingering in your mind. Pierzchala skillfully develops a plot that leaves you turning page after page. The development of Chen-Diaz from start to finish is truly exceptional. Eclipse Rising is a one-of-a-kind thriller that sci-fi lovers will enjoy."

- J. Soule, The Lost Chapter

"Aside from praising the author's vast imagination, with all the tech advancements and gadgets available, this book is a good blend of fantasy, thriller, and a suitable dosage of drama. It is a quest about a man with a second chance to live...and his opportunity to work wonders or cause disgrace using his limitless resources. Super fun, even if you haven't read the first book." (4 out of 5 stars, Amazon)

"Eclipse Rising: Beyond Cascadia, Book Two...continues on the stories of Owen and Tomas as their roles in the world change along with the environments around them. Tomas has been on both ends of the spectrum; he has been barely staying alive with nothing to his name, and he has now created an empire with almost unlimited resources and power...Owen is coming with his own baggage as he is being hunted because it is believed he has been part of a hostile event in Oregon. The action is intense and keeps the reader interested the entire time...I highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys science fiction novels." (5 out of 5 stars, Amazon)

"In the second book of the Beyond Cascadia series, the author does a fine job expanding the futuristic world the story is set in and developing the characters. In Eclipse Rising, the readers have the feeling of a follow-up that delivers all the expected features and goes beyond, without losing its sense of realness. Even though it is set in the future, and there are many differences to our world, nothing seems unbelievable. That makes this an immersive reading experience that I thoroughly enjoyed." (4 stars, Amazon)

Be Here Now

Recently, I was chatting with a wise and witty mom, and she mentioned how, at the end of a busy day of errand-running, she sometimes finds herself pulling into her driveway and asking herself, "Wait---were those red lights or green lights?"

This scary revelation really struck a chord with me. Many is the time I've traveled hundreds of yards down a freeway before realizing my mind has been many miles away. And not in a happy, relaxing place, either. Grocery lists unravel themselves down the concrete ribbon beneath my tires. Did I mail that bill? What happened to that shoe-store receipt that I wrote the important phone number on? Mental meal-planing, lesson planning, closet-cleaning strategies, planned confrontations---er, conversations--- with my spouse on important family issues, snappy comebacks to the radio talk show host currently pontificating away on the car's speakers, witty bumper sticker designs to put the driver ahead of me in his place regarding Darwin (at least that one counts as sort of paying attention to the road)---all these things and hundreds more swirl in my head like the bits of litter stirred up by the breeze from my vehicle's passing.

We all know how stupidly irresponsible it is to drink and drive, but how many of us are tempted to text and drive, or take our hands off the wheel to answer that tantalizing ring-tone? Or even merely to adjust the radio? Statistics are proving these habits to be so dangerous that we have a moral obligation to our families, passengers and fellow drivers to just wait and take care of those conversations when our engines are off and our minds focused on the job at hand.

If being mentally "present" while driving is so important, is it important to also be "present" to the people we encounter in the course of our daily lives, even if we're only interacting with them briefly, perhaps will never see them again in this life? Very important, because for the moment, that interaction is the only "real" thing in your life. The past is gone and the future hasn't arrived yet. It never really does.

What's the point of all this rushing through one job in order to get to the next, of multi-tasking, plate-spinning, of bolting one untasted mouthful of food in order to gulp down the next? Where are we getting to that's more urgent than where we are and what we're doing now? Even during lockdown, for those of us who were largely confined to our homes, many of us experienced a sense of aimlessness, a great burden of "what else is coming?" Instead of cultivating peace and patience, we wallowed in dread and became addicted to bad news, always scrolling Twitter to reach a horizon of assurance or enlightenment that never comes.

This kind of distracted rush through life certainly doesn't improve the quality of our work, our relationships, our life. If we take a few steps back and view our lives impassively, we'll probably see that this method of frantic but fruitless productivity actually works against us. We generate a lot of heat, but very little light. By trying to accomplish too much in a day, to occupy every moment with external distractions, we end up doing our jobs badly, leaving them unfinished, which makes us feel frustrated and inferior. And just who are we trying impress with these unproductive habits that have some people, (moms especially) running around like ants on a hot metal plate?

The dictionary defines the words "mindful" and "mindfulness" as being "attentive or heedful". The term "mindful" is used a lot these days in a more Buddhist/yoga context, but in its basic definition, it just means paying attention to what you're doing. Looking a clerk in the eye and smiling

(assuming you're not wearing a mask), listening patiently to a story you've heard from your grandmother several times already, putting an extra flourish on your husband's plate as you serve up dinner, coaching your pre-schooler to to tie her shoe---being "mindful" during these prosaic moments produces more long-term value than multi-tasking; half-listening, mumbling distracted responses, cutting emotional corners.

Being mindful in the moment re-connects with the now. By forcing yourself to take the time to really look at the details of a flower petal, a ripe orange or a sea-shell, you lower your blood-pressure and heart rate, and the humblest aspects of God's creation are rediscovered in your awareness. By looking deeply into the eyes of a friend, spouse or child, by opening your heart and really listening to their mundane observations or surface talk, you may discover what you've been rushing to find.

"The very nature of the Person (Christ) I had met was His now-ness. He was so overwhelmingly and everywhere Present, so that no other time could even exist where He was. It was no good, I suddenly saw, looking for Him in the past...if I wanted to feel the nearness of Christ---and I did want that, above everything else---I would have to find it in the people that He put before me each day."

-----George Ritchie, "Return from Tomorrow"

(c) S.Kirk Pierzchala, 2021. Originally published on the blog, “Beauty and Belief”.

Book Drawing Reminder!

Just a quick reminder--- there's still time to enter a drawing for an autographed hardback edition of "Eclipse Rising"! Fill out out the contact form here, and then reply "I'm in" and you'll be included!

If you are already on my mailing list, answer "I'm in!" to this notification to make sure you won't miss out.

Winner will be notified on July 31, so make sure these updates aren't going in your spam folder!

From the reviews:

"...captivating and written with lots of Pierzchala’s poetic imagery that adds to the delight."

"Author S. Kirk Pierzchala has crafted an immersive, fantastical, and yet eerily familiar work of futuristic fiction with plenty of thrills, spills, and interpersonal drama to offer its readers."

"With vivid imagery, an extraordinary sense of time and place, and prose that is almost poetic at times, Eclipse Rising captivates and entertains."

"It’s a tough challenge to weave the threads of personal growth and real self-discovery into a thriller, but the author succeeds magnificently. Set mainly in the Pacific Northwest of the near future, the characters must confront their own beliefs and assumptions as they try to adjust to quickly changing social conditions, a globalized world where the action spills over into Asia and Latin America, and technological advances that pose hitherto unimagined ethical quagmires."

Finally--some good news from Portland!

Portland has been in the news frequently over the last year for lots of bad news. But life shows us that there is always an opportunity for light to shine all the brighter when times are dark, and isn't that a wonderful thing to remember?

Recently, I spent time with a volunteer group who ministers to the street people, and my impressions were published in the Catholic World Report---please read and share!