Andrew Sweet's Blog: Reality Gradient, page 8
April 24, 2021
Mta with Angela Darling
Angela Darling joined me and Justin Wagoner for a foray into the horror genre on MtA, a monthly podcast where authors chat about craft, marketing, science fiction, and supernatural experiences, among other things!
Look for Angela's new book coming out in may, Asylum - an innovation in horror that will chill you!
A co-venture with Greater Seattle Area Writers, MtA is a monthly podcast that features a new writer, and connects you with other writers around the world. Because of the partnership, we do get a lot of folks from the Puget Sound region, but others are welcome as well.
You can view episodes or sign up for future shows if you're an author (no charge) from my website here: https://www.andrewsweetbooks.com/meet....
Look for Angela's new book coming out in may, Asylum - an innovation in horror that will chill you!
A co-venture with Greater Seattle Area Writers, MtA is a monthly podcast that features a new writer, and connects you with other writers around the world. Because of the partnership, we do get a lot of folks from the Puget Sound region, but others are welcome as well.
You can view episodes or sign up for future shows if you're an author (no charge) from my website here: https://www.andrewsweetbooks.com/meet....
April 5, 2021
The Ordell Bentley?
Whew! Just finished editing the novella, but I'm looking for a title. It picks up after Models and Citizens and follows Ordell to the beginning of Bodhi Rising.
Bodhi Rising doesn't follow Harper, and that's for a good reason. Believe it or not, Ordell gets more "screen time" in Bodhi Rising than Harper does. It was unavoidable because models are still very central to Bodhi's decision, more so than Harper's influence. Bodhi Rising is 100k words after all, which is long-ish for dystopian science fiction. If I'd followed Harper's story (I did write that part and cut most of it), then it gets to almost 150k words. Too long for the genre (unless you're Frank Herbert).
Back to titles. I'm oscillating between "Siblings of the Natural Order" and "The Ordell Bentley" (emphasis on "The"). But if you have a better idea, I'm all ears. It centers on those two. You get a deep look into the operation of SNO, and a better look at Ordell as he changes from a victim into a change-maker.
Bodhi Rising doesn't follow Harper, and that's for a good reason. Believe it or not, Ordell gets more "screen time" in Bodhi Rising than Harper does. It was unavoidable because models are still very central to Bodhi's decision, more so than Harper's influence. Bodhi Rising is 100k words after all, which is long-ish for dystopian science fiction. If I'd followed Harper's story (I did write that part and cut most of it), then it gets to almost 150k words. Too long for the genre (unless you're Frank Herbert).
Back to titles. I'm oscillating between "Siblings of the Natural Order" and "The Ordell Bentley" (emphasis on "The"). But if you have a better idea, I'm all ears. It centers on those two. You get a deep look into the operation of SNO, and a better look at Ordell as he changes from a victim into a change-maker.
April 2, 2021
Now Writing: Reality Gradient Book 4
Ten years ago or more, my wife (also my editor) pitched a name at me from her position on the couch. We'd been reading through each other's writing, her florid prose and my poetry and short stories, in our apartment near D.C. I remember her story was about the slow death of a priest - and the way she described a coughing fit was visceral - blew me away!
But she also did something else that evening - she gave me a great serial killer name. I tried to write a novel based on him in the first person, but it was too dark for me at the time. Now, writing in the Reality Gradient universe, I finally have a place to put him. He even gets to feature as the antagonist. After all this time, I'm glad he finally gets some time in the sun, so to speak. I'm two chapters in and loving the story so far. This is going to be dark though - so be prepared when book 4 comes out in March/April next year.
Serial killers in the future! I love it!
But she also did something else that evening - she gave me a great serial killer name. I tried to write a novel based on him in the first person, but it was too dark for me at the time. Now, writing in the Reality Gradient universe, I finally have a place to put him. He even gets to feature as the antagonist. After all this time, I'm glad he finally gets some time in the sun, so to speak. I'm two chapters in and loving the story so far. This is going to be dark though - so be prepared when book 4 comes out in March/April next year.
Serial killers in the future! I love it!
March 24, 2021
MtA by Greater Seattle Area Writers
Meet the Authors this week features Sheena Monnin and Jennifer Safrey!
Quick reminder that our Meet the Author's event is this Saturday at 10AM! Check out this pretty cool digital card that one of our featured guests made for us! Come join us for the complete experience - and to get to know some of your fellow members. We spend the last 30 minutes basically goofing around with whoever shows up - it's a blast!
Fellow authors - let me know if you'd like to be "featured" and interviewed for the first half-ish of the show.
All - message me on Goodreads for connection details. The event will also be posted on YouTube afterwards!
Quick reminder that our Meet the Author's event is this Saturday at 10AM! Check out this pretty cool digital card that one of our featured guests made for us! Come join us for the complete experience - and to get to know some of your fellow members. We spend the last 30 minutes basically goofing around with whoever shows up - it's a blast!
Fellow authors - let me know if you'd like to be "featured" and interviewed for the first half-ish of the show.
All - message me on Goodreads for connection details. The event will also be posted on YouTube afterwards!
March 21, 2021
Reality Gradient
The Reality Gradient universe is a moment in time, in the future, when many events set into motion today finally come to a close. For example, cloning evolves into bioengineering to produce what are known as "models", engineered humans who work have been moderately engineered to possess certain traits. For example, check out the Model Type Guide to determine where you might fit on the spectrum ;).
Models aren't identical like clones are, rather they are basic templates from which individual variations are stamped. Further, in the United States, the last names of models indicate the geographic regions they are from. Ordell Bentley, a protagonist in Models and Citizens, was originally "manufactured" in the Bentley neighborhood of New York CIty.
Just a tidbit you might find interesting that I never come out and explicitly state in the novel. Happy reading!
Models aren't identical like clones are, rather they are basic templates from which individual variations are stamped. Further, in the United States, the last names of models indicate the geographic regions they are from. Ordell Bentley, a protagonist in Models and Citizens, was originally "manufactured" in the Bentley neighborhood of New York CIty.
Just a tidbit you might find interesting that I never come out and explicitly state in the novel. Happy reading!
March 13, 2021
Saturday is fun day!
Saturday mornings have turned into social mornings for me. If you happen to be online, this is the time I'm most engaged in the outside world. Drop me a message on Goodreads or just an email at andrew@andrewsweetbooks.com and this is the window that I'm preparing my newsletter, cleaning up my Wattpad story Notions of Home (https://www.wattpad.com/myworks/25935...), and you could get a real-time response! I try to answer everyone who writes to me if I can.
February 24, 2021
Meet the Author by Greater Seattle Area Writers
Good afternoon!
This Saturday on Meet the Authors, join us for a Zoom chat with Jolene Loraine and Mike Sherer. Brought to you by Greater Seattle Area Writers!
Interviewing: Jolene Loraine (https://whitehorse-et.com/films/), Mike Sherer (https://mikesherer.org/shadytown/) (both from the Greater Seattle Area!)
Message me for meeting information!
This Saturday on Meet the Authors, join us for a Zoom chat with Jolene Loraine and Mike Sherer. Brought to you by Greater Seattle Area Writers!
Interviewing: Jolene Loraine (https://whitehorse-et.com/films/), Mike Sherer (https://mikesherer.org/shadytown/) (both from the Greater Seattle Area!)
Message me for meeting information!
February 20, 2021
Science Fiction with a conscience...
Sign up for Andrew Sweet's Newsletter for more insights... and get access to the exclusive Dandelion serial.
The The Day of the Triffids was my father's gift as a life-long aficionado of science fiction of all sorts. Imagine a young boy, laying in front of a small black-and-white television, watching the man slowly removing his own blindfold after an operation, with no doctor in sight. The entire hospital is deserted, and he eventually stumbles onto flesh-eating plants which descended during an asteroid storm! Enthralling!
It wasn't until many years later that I realized that within that fluffy exterior of man-eating seedlings lurked a nut of truth about society. In this case, The Day of the Triffids contains quite a few observations about society in the time it was written, and can in ways be viewed as an indictment and entrenchment of what was happening in the east. All of this, while slowly becoming a science fiction juggernaut that influenced the movie 28 Days Later, while itself being heavily influenced by The War of the Worlds.
You have to have a little history to get this. So The Day of the Triffids was published in 1951, six years after World War 2 ended, and just as the cold war was getting started. This guy, Trofim Lysenko, had risen to power to head the USSR Academy of Science in 1940, where he pushed exploration into what was known as soft-inheritance, a bogus but fun scientific theory to play around with that ultimately killed millions of people during the Great Leap Forward - but that's another story. This story is about how fear of genetic manipulation, not too different from the anti-GMO stuff we see today, got rolling. John Wyndam worked this in as his origin of The Day of the Triffids and where they came from. He even implied that the meteor shower was an artifact of cold war experiments. This story is thick with historical depth.
The story is an indictment of such experimentation, as well as an indictment on collectivist society. Multiple times throughout the story, the protagonist's visionaries (literally - people with sight remaining) become limited by being physically chained to pull along the blind. For more context regarding public sentiment, consider that Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand emerged on the scene in 1957 to wide claim. This wasn't an accident and shows where public sentiment had moved to. Wyndam wasn't shy at all about pointing out the shortcomings he saw in the emerging new world order.
My point to all of the above is that even The Day of the Triffids, with its outlandish plot of man-eating plants and meteor-induced blindness that was nearly 100% effective, never shied away from the difficult conversations. Science fiction gives us a safe way to talk about society and to ask ourselves - are we really doing the right thing? All while flying across the universe or struggling to survive yet another apocalypse.
Sign up for Andrew Sweet's Newsletter for more insights... and get access to the exclusive Dandelion serial.
The The Day of the Triffids was my father's gift as a life-long aficionado of science fiction of all sorts. Imagine a young boy, laying in front of a small black-and-white television, watching the man slowly removing his own blindfold after an operation, with no doctor in sight. The entire hospital is deserted, and he eventually stumbles onto flesh-eating plants which descended during an asteroid storm! Enthralling!
It wasn't until many years later that I realized that within that fluffy exterior of man-eating seedlings lurked a nut of truth about society. In this case, The Day of the Triffids contains quite a few observations about society in the time it was written, and can in ways be viewed as an indictment and entrenchment of what was happening in the east. All of this, while slowly becoming a science fiction juggernaut that influenced the movie 28 Days Later, while itself being heavily influenced by The War of the Worlds.
You have to have a little history to get this. So The Day of the Triffids was published in 1951, six years after World War 2 ended, and just as the cold war was getting started. This guy, Trofim Lysenko, had risen to power to head the USSR Academy of Science in 1940, where he pushed exploration into what was known as soft-inheritance, a bogus but fun scientific theory to play around with that ultimately killed millions of people during the Great Leap Forward - but that's another story. This story is about how fear of genetic manipulation, not too different from the anti-GMO stuff we see today, got rolling. John Wyndam worked this in as his origin of The Day of the Triffids and where they came from. He even implied that the meteor shower was an artifact of cold war experiments. This story is thick with historical depth.
The story is an indictment of such experimentation, as well as an indictment on collectivist society. Multiple times throughout the story, the protagonist's visionaries (literally - people with sight remaining) become limited by being physically chained to pull along the blind. For more context regarding public sentiment, consider that Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand emerged on the scene in 1957 to wide claim. This wasn't an accident and shows where public sentiment had moved to. Wyndam wasn't shy at all about pointing out the shortcomings he saw in the emerging new world order.
My point to all of the above is that even The Day of the Triffids, with its outlandish plot of man-eating plants and meteor-induced blindness that was nearly 100% effective, never shied away from the difficult conversations. Science fiction gives us a safe way to talk about society and to ask ourselves - are we really doing the right thing? All while flying across the universe or struggling to survive yet another apocalypse.
Sign up for Andrew Sweet's Newsletter for more insights... and get access to the exclusive Dandelion serial.
February 14, 2021
Prepping Bodhi Rising for Editor
Bodhi Rising is now on sale, but I'm not pushing it yet. If you message me directly, I can share about 10 copies if you'd like to get a jump on it. I'm in need of beta-readers, so it could be a good thing of us both. Reach out to me and let me know if you want to help out!
FYI - all beta readers get listed in the dedications. Check out Models and Citizens and you'll see what I mean!
FYI - all beta readers get listed in the dedications. Check out Models and Citizens and you'll see what I mean!
February 11, 2021
New Cover for Bodhi Rising!
So I took someone's advice and put out a request for someone to do a cover for Bodhi Rising. I love my cover for Models and Citizens, but I don't think it exactly nailed the market. For Bodhi Rising, I decided to have someone do it, and the results are looking very good. Keep a lookout - I think in about another week I'll post it here to Goodreads (first).
By the way, if you're an author who is pretty good with graphics, I would still recommend hiring someone. To do what the artist I found could do would take me a very long time - and I have writing and editing to do too! My recommendation is to seek out someone to take over that work and free your mind to explore the elaborate science fiction (or other fiction) worlds you are creating and the characters you are building!
By the way, if you're an author who is pretty good with graphics, I would still recommend hiring someone. To do what the artist I found could do would take me a very long time - and I have writing and editing to do too! My recommendation is to seek out someone to take over that work and free your mind to explore the elaborate science fiction (or other fiction) worlds you are creating and the characters you are building!
Reality Gradient
Keep up with what's happening as I progress toward the publication of my first novel Models and Citizens in the new series Reality Gradient.
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