Sheila Deeth's Blog, page 96

Starting the New Year organized?

Me organized? It doesn't sound terribly likely I know. But our oldest son has finally dragged me into the 21st century with the aid of a smart-phone. I've linked it to a shiny new gmail account, resulting in emails, a totally chaotic address book full of random disconnected contacts, and a calendar, all easily (?) accessible from that sliver of plastic in my back pocket.

I kept thinking I ought to get organized and answer some of the those facebook, linkedin, gather, squidoo and twitter emails piling up in my old (non-gmail) inbox. But instead I'm getting organized making facebook, linkedin, gather etc send their mails to a nice new address... Then I get distracted... Then I look for wallpaper and ringtones and try out the GPS... And then...

Well, and then I make dinner. But in case you were wondering why I've not posted your book reviews or replied to your emails yet, please blame organization. Who knows, this time next week I might finally learn what year it is.

Flower Child nominated in Preditors and Editors !!!

I was heading over to http://critters.org/predpoll/shortstorysf.shtml to vote for a story I'd read and I saw my own name! Really! Flower Child's been nominated under
Science Fiction & Fantasy Short Story published in 2011... Runs round the room in amazement--one of my stories, nominated!!!

Runs round the room again!!!

Runs out of exclamation points...

Anyway, if you liked Flower Child, please vote for me--just follow the link, click the button by Flower Child, add your name and email and copy the magic code (for verification) lower down the page, then click on the link in your email when you receive it.

I think I'll just go run round the room again...

Happy New Year

New year already? Really?

We played some board games yesterday and realized I still hadn't put them away since Christmas 2010! Procrastination rules. But tidying them up means hiding away reminders of the kids. I like to keep them around, board games and kids. Since the "kids" are all grown, I guess I'll probably keep those board-game boxes piled under a table till Christmas 2012.

Highly recommended--Settlers, Dominion, Railroad Tychoon and El Grande...

Meanwhile, Happy New Year!And here's a few children's book's I've been reading to usher in new hopes and new inspirations... (and coffee of course).

Cardsharp, by Paul Oliver Westmoreland, is the first in a series of adventures centering on art historian Vincent Ward. And yes, someone who studies art can have seriously exciting adventures. A wonderful way to introduce the modern teen to the wonders of serious art, this series promises to be great fun. It's a pleasing blend of history, authentic information, and thoroughly modern action, told with an enjoyably English accent and spiced with a convincing international flavor. Enjoy this easy-reading adventure with a 2-star lively easy-drinking cup of coffee.

The other books will all get rolled into one review since they're part of series. I got hooked on Erin Hunter's warrior cats after my husband gave me the first series for Christmas 2010. Christmas 2011 brought a boxed set of series 2, Warriors, the New Prophesy, and I'm still hooked. If anything, there's even more depth to the stories and feline characters now as they seek the wisdom of their ancestors when human Two-Legs threaten their home. Highly recommended. Enjoy with 4-star complex coffee flavors and read them straight after your kids.

Writing over Christmas

I made it! I finally finished my short story in time to enter Second Wind Publishing's competition. The theme was spring or renewal and there are lots of really great entries. Click here--http://secondwindcontests.wordpress.com/2011/12/30/ark-by-sheila-deeth/--if you want to read mine, and here--http://secondwindcontests.wordpress.com/contest-entries/--for links to all the entries. Enjoy! (And please wish me luck!)

Reading over Christmas

Somehow setting my kindle down among the Christmas cooking just didn't feel safe. Leaving it lying around while unwrapping presents seemed a little risky too. And remembering to charge it in the midst of all those Christmas activities? Instead I've been reading real physical books, one in the kitchen, one in the living-room, and one downstairs by the TV (while the guys watched soccer). And now I've got three new reviews to post. Enjoy some fine Christmas coffee with these books--gingerbread spiced, delicious (so now you know what I've been drinking over Christmas too).

First is an excellent mystery with great characters and fascinating relationships, as well as an absorbing puzzle, set in a very real world. Jaden Terrell's Racing the Devil starts with a divorced man helping a battered woman in a bar, then quickly swings to said man accused of murder. But Jared McKean is a former detective, and he finds himself surrounded by more friends than he'd imagined possible as he tries to solve his case. His world of damaged relationships and salvageable friendships is truly absorbing and I'm eagerly awaiting more books in this series. A perfect combination of noir and human hope, this one's best enjoyed with a 4-star elegant coffee.

Next comes Jim Butcher's Ghost Story. My husband finished reading it just before Christmas, which meant it was my turn. And yes, we did at last succumb to the temptation to buy a Harry Dresden novel before it came out in paperback. If you're hooked on the series, this one's a must-read. If not, I'd probably suggest you try a different one first. Not the best, but definitely a fine addition to the set. I just wish I could believe the next one would come soon. Drink a 4-star complex coffee with this complicated tale.

And finally, a young adult fantasy, Silverdream and Bloodfire by Brenda Wynn. The author's created a fascinating protagonist in this first episode of her Chronicles of Elydir. Wheel-chair-bound college student Amanda Jennings isn't defined by her disability, but definitely knows how to live with it. Boyfriend and ex-boyfriend snipe at each other while she tries to find a book of magic spells. Then, suddenly, she's plunged into a different world where she can walk. Meanwhile Prince Kelvan lands in Amanda's wheelchair and loses the power to walk. Amanda learns the power of magic. Others learn the power of friendship. And readers learn an intricate well-imagined background to a complex world, while drinking a well-balanced 3-star cup of coffee.

Happy Boxing Day!
Happy reading!

Happy Christmas !

Shepherds, kings, angels, mice and men came to worship Him.I've just posted 31 Christmas drips, telling the Christmas story in 25-word segments.Click here to find out more.
Merry Christmasand Happy New Year
Happy Reading in 2012

Kindle's not just for reading?

I'm wrapping presents of books, books and more books as youngest son hopes to own the ones he used to read of ours. Meanwhile my kindle's thoroughly loaded, the fridge is filling, the turkey's thawing, and plans for Christmas celebrations are growing to fruition. Oh, and I'm reading, of course. But I've been playing some other games on my kindle this week, and there's a neat set of Christmas puzzles I just might open on my computer's pseudo-kindle for everyone to look at after Christmas dinner...

As usual, these reviews should link to longer reviews on Gather, and the coffee recommendations are exactly what they say--coffee is good!

I've read / puzzled / played with three kindle puzzle books from Garabchuck recently and can definitely recommend them to anyone looking for puzzles to play with or share over Christmas. There's a short sweet set of twelve bright-colored mysteries for Christmas--how many toys will fit in the box... which star isn't the same... etc. Then there are 102 nicely graded brain-twisters in one great collection (it's a sequel to two other collections of 100 and 101). And finally Lets Tans is a set of kindle tangrams where you use the fiveway controller to move the pieces--kind of fun, and surprisingly easy to get used to. You'll want a 1-star light crisp coffee to inspire you as you share these with your family.

I read this next book on Kindle too, but the puzzle's in the mystery of what might have happened to the young protagonist, and why. Awareness, by Rowan Shannigan, tells the story of a 16-year-old girl who wakes from a two-week coma to find strange people (and more) talking all round her while nobody else knows they're there. The author creates a very convincing teen-girl voice, with likeable character, natural behavior, and a sudden, very strange skill. Good timing makes the curious revelations of worlds beyond worlds (angels, demons, elves?) quite pleasingly believable. First in a new series, the story's nicely complete, and the preview of what comes next is truly scary. Start with a 2-star bright lively coffee, but you might need something darker by the end.

And now for a book I read in real paper and print, a surprisingly intriguing view into the life of a schizophrenic young adult finding answers among the shadows that seem to haunt her. The start of Yamaya Cruz's When the Shadows Began to Dance is a little shaky, but once I got into the story I couldn't put it down. Even typos couldn't distract me. Drink a 4-star complex coffee with this--it's a complex tale where reality, mysticism and imagination are completely intertwined.

Meet Karen Wyle, author of Twin Bred

Twin Bred is a fascinating science fiction tale where the science really does support the story and the story supports the science. (See my review of Twin Bred here. Or look at yesterday's blog for more information.) With lots of ethical questions, fascinatingly real characters, and a truly original premise, this was a story I was bound to enjoy. And today I'm delighted to welcome the author, Karen A. Wyle, to my blog for an interview:


Q. What is yourbackground? What are your interests outside of writing?
A.  I was born a Connecticut Yankee, but moved toCalifornia at age 8. I then bounced back and forth between the coasts until Imet my now-husband and moved with him to the Midwest. I now consider myself aHoosier. I'm Jewish, the first generation of my family to be born in thiscountry: my parents and their immediate families barely escaped Hitler'sEurope. Myother interests include politics, history, photography, and whatever mydaughters are up to.
Q.  What is Twin-Bredabout?
A. Caninterspecies diplomacy begin in the womb? In Twin-Bred, the human colonyon Tofarn and the indigenous Tofa have great difficulty communicating with andbasically comprehending each other. Scientist Mara Cadell proposes that hostmothers of either or both species carry twins, one human and one Tofa, in thehope that the bond between twins can bridge the gap between species. Mara losther own twin, Levi, in utero, but she has secretly kept Levi alive in her mindas a companion and collaborator.
Mara succeeds in obtaining governmental backing for herproject – but both the human and Tofa establishments have their own agendas.Mara must shepherd the Twin-Bred through dangers she anticipated and othersthat even the canny Levi could not foresee.Will the Twin-Bred bring peace, war, or something else entirely?

Q. What inspiredyou to write Twin-Bred?
A. I read an article online about interactions betweentwins in utero -- synchronized movement, touching, even kissing. Eitherthis article or a comment on the article mentioned the longterm effect oflosing a twin in utero. As an avid science fiction reader, I tend to see thesci-fi potential in any event or discovery. I imagined a scientist seeking toovercome the comprehension gap between two intelligent species by way of thebond between twins. It would be natural for the scientist who conceived thisidea to be a twin; it would be intriguing if she were a twin survivor, and ifshe had somehow kept her lost twin alive as a companion, who could be acharacter in the story.
On a deeper level, I have always been fascinated bycommunication issues and the struggle to understand what is different.

Q. What did youlearn from writing Twin-Bred?
A.  As this was my first novel since age 10(completed novel) or age 14 (novel abandoned after 40 pages or so), it taughtme a great deal about myself as a writer, and about the process of writingfiction.  I learned that most of the writingtakes place on a subconscious level -- that I had to sit down and be ready towrite, ask a few key questions about my characters' emotions and situations,and then get out of the way. I confirmed the validity of Stephen King'sobservation that an author is like a paleontologist uncovering a fossil, pieceby piece. (Like many a paleontologist, I found myself frequently unsure of howthose pieces should be arranged.)

Q.  What traits do you share with your maincharacter?
A.   Like Mara, I'm impatient, although I am notquite as likely to explode as a result. I am no scientist, but I have aninquiring mind. I'm persistent and stubborn. I am not terrific at formingsocial connections, although I am not as socially isolated as Mara. Mara'sartistic talents are borrowed from my older daughter, an art student and mycover artist.

Q. What would youmost like readers to tell others about this book?
A.  That it's a thought-provoking and engrossingread, with likeable, loveable and/or intriguing characters, and a conclusionthat doesn't disappoint. And to buy the book! J

Q.  What led you to self-publish Twin-Bred?
A.   Once I finished the rough draft of Twin-Bred, I began reading every blogand Twitter feed I could find, as well as several books, about the publishingprocess. At first, I was learning how to query agents and publishers, and howto format a manuscript for submission. But the more I read, the more I realizedtwo things:
--Self-publishing was eminently feasible and would give me much morecontrol over content, marketing and timing.
--In the current unsettled state ofthe industry, there are serious risks involved in the traditional route. Moreand more agency and publication contracts include language that can seriouslylimit an author's future options, and offer relatively little in exchange. Norcan one have great confidence that the publisher who's preparing your book forpublication in eighteen months will be in business that long.

Q.  Are thereany specific authors whose writing styles or subject matter inspiredyour book?
A.  Mary Doria Russell's The Sparrow and Children ofGod are brilliant treatments of the theme of human-alien communicationdifficulties.  These books inspire meeven as their excellence intimidates me.
Footfall, by LarryNiven and Jerry Pournelle, is another excellent, and very entertaining,treatment of the same theme, although in a different context (alien invasion ofEarth). I particularly enjoyed the role that Niven and Pournelle gave toscience fiction authors in the analysis of the alien threat. While I did notuse this device, it may have influenced my decision to have my colonists nametheir various towns after science fiction authors.

Q.  What is your greatest strength as a writer?
A.  I'd be interested in readers' answer to thisquestion! -- but my guess would be:  myway with language.  Anotherpossibility:  my affection for and goodwishes for humanity/sentient species in general.

Q.  What do you like best about being a writer,and what do you dislike most about it?
A.  I love it when the story decides to writeitself! It's a bit like being a medium and channeling some spirit. I dislike myongoing battle to keep carpal tunnel syndrome at bay.

Q.  In addition to writing, what else are youpassionate about?
A.  My family; politics (not saying in whichdirection!); reading; the beauty of everyday details.

Q.  What other books will we be seeing from you?
A.  This summer, I completed a rough draft of asecond novel, tentatively titled Reflections, which is general fiction. It has two alternative tag lines:"Death is what you make it" and "Will you need courage inheaven?" It is set in an afterlife with certain features which lendthemselves to the confrontation of lingering personal issues and unfinishedbusiness. For example, you can relive any memory in perfect detail -- and ifsomeone else who took part in the remembered scene is there with you, you cantrade places and remember the events from the other person's perspective.  There are other aspects of the afterlifethat, while serving this same purpose, are also just plain fun. You can be anyage at any time, and visit any place that you rememberor that anyone you meet -- from any time in Earth's history --remembers.
Reflectionsconcerns a mother who desperately wanted a child, but who left that child inthe care of her parents and grandmother for unknown reasons.  The child, grandparents and great-grandmotherdie in an auto accident four years after the mother's mysterious departure; themother dies of stress cardiomyopathy ("broken heart syndrome") sometime later, and is reunited with the family she left behind.
I recently published a short story (free on Smashwords)called "The Baby," which involves human cloning. I am planning towrite additional stories set in the same near future, some of them involvingthe legal issues that human cloning may raise. I hope to release the additionalstories one at a time or save them for a collection.
And finally, I just finished the rough draft of the sequel toTwin-Bred during the 2011 NationalNovel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). If the process of editing Twin-Bred is any guide, it will be at least autumn of 2012 beforethat sequel (presently unnamed) will be available.

Q.  Do you have any suggestions for beginningwriters?
A. OK, longanswer coming up:
--Read, read, read. Read fiction, biography, history -- whatever interests you.  Read authors whose voice appeals to you.
--Don't let anyone tell you whether you're meant to be, orwhether you are, a writer.  Evenwell-meaning folks may be poor critics, and not everyone who makespronouncements on your potential will be well-meaning.
--Keep pen and paper, or some other means of taking notes,with you at all times.  Don't assumeyou'll remember your great idea 5 minutes from now -- write it downimmediately! 
--Become compulsive about multiple backups of your ideanotes, works in progress, rough drafts, subsequent drafts, etc.  Use the cloud, e.g., Dropbox orEvernote.  Email attachments toyourself.  Put files on a separate harddrive and on flash drives.
--Keep your inner editor gagged and stuffed in a closet whenyou're working on rough drafts.  Don't beafraid to leave blanks or bracketed notes as you go.  (My latest rough draft has one that reads"[insert appropriate South American country here].")   National Novel Writing Month(www.nanowrimo.org) is a great way to accomplish this.  There'll be time enough later for lots andlots or rewriting.
--Learn about self-publishing, and about the publishing industry.  There's a wealth of info and support outthere for indie authors.  Conversely,this is a risky time to sign a contract with an agent or publisher.  Because of the uncertain and fast-changingconditions in the publishing industry, many agents and publishers are inserting"rights grabs" and other clauses in their contracts that couldcripple an author's career.  If you dosign with an agent or publisher, pay a good IP attorney to go through thecontract with a microscope.  Don't letthe allure of "being published" lead you to grab at an offer ofrepresentation or publication without vetting it thoroughly.

Q. Where is Twin-Bred available?
A. Here are thepurchase links:
Amazon (Kindle): http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005VDVHQ2
Amazon (POD):  http://www.amazon.com/Twin-Bred-Karen-Wyle/dp/1463578911/ref=tmm_pap_title_0
Nook Store:  http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/twin-bred-karen-wyle/1106674642?ean=2940013311077&itm=1&usri=twin%2Bbred           
Smashwords (various ebook formats):  http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/94490
Q. If your bookwere to be made into a film, whom would you cast?
A.  Roughly half my cast would have to be CGIwith heavily tweaked voices. As for Mara Cadell:  is there a younger Lisa Edelstein out there?Or a younger, female Scott Glenn? J Jamie Gertz might begood, if she can be made up to look younger; or Keira Knightley (in her lessglamorous mode). Smadar Sayar is another possibility.

Q.  What would we find under your bed?
A.  A large collection of dust puppies.  Dust puppies are like dust bunnies, exceptthat they are composed primarily of dog hair.
Thank you Karen. It sounds like we share a love of dogs as well as science and fiction. I really enjoyed your book and wish you every success with it.

More to these twins than meets the eye

Tomorrow you'll be able to read an interview with Karen Wyle, author of Twin Bred, on my blog. Just to get you in the mood, Karen's letting me post an excerpt today, so read on and enjoy...


Twin-Bred By Karen A. Wyle
Caninterspecies diplomacy begin in the womb? After seventy years on Tofarn, thehuman colonists and the native Tofa still know very little about eachother.  Misunderstanding breed conflict, and the conflicts are escalating.Scientist Mara Cadell's radical proposal: that host mothers of either speciescarry fraternal twins, human and Tofa, in the hope that the bond between twinscan bridge the gap between species. Mara lost her own twin, Levi, in utero, butshe has secretly kept him alive in her mind as companion and collaborator.
Marasucceeds in obtaining governmental backing for her project – but both the humanand Tofa establishments have their own agendas. Mara must shepherd theTwin-Bred through dangers she anticipated and others that even the canny Levicould not foresee. Will the Twin-Bred bring peace, war, or something elseentirely?

Amazon(Kindle):  http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005VDVHQ2
Amazon(POD): http://www.amazon.com/Twin-Bred-Karen-Wyle/dp/1463578911/ref=tmm_pap_title_0
NookStore: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/twin-bred-karen-wyle/1106674642?ean=2940013311077&itm=1&usri=twin%2Bbred         ;
Smashwords(various ebook formats):  http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/94490
CreateSpace(paperback):  https://www.createspace.com/3541557

Excerpt:
The human colony onTofarn and the indigenous Tofa have great difficulty communicating with andbasically comprehending each other. Scientist Mara Cadell is running a projectwhere host mothers carry twins, one human and one Tofa, in the hope that thebond between twins can bridge the gap between species. Alan Kimball, a memberof the governing human Council, is hostile to the Tofa and has inserted agentsinto the project.
Excerpt #1 from Twin-Bred
Tilda looked at her twins, cuddled close together inthe crib. Mat-set had all four arms wrapped around Suzie. They seemed to cuddleany chance they got. Maybe they were glad to be free of separate amniotic sacs.She looked down at Mat-set and remembered the rumorsof Tofa with five arms instead of four. She had even seen pictures, but whoknew whether they were authentic. Certainly none of the Tofa Twin-Bred babieshad been born with extra limbs. Tilda glanced over at the big dormitory clock and thenback down at the babies. She gasped and staggered a step back. Mat-set wasstill holding Suzie with four arms. So how was he scratching his head withanother one?Tilda looked around wildly for a chair, found oneblessedly nearby, and sank down on it. She pinched herself. Nothing changed. Well,who said you couldn't pinch yourself in a dream and keep on dreaming?She got up and walked, a bit unsteadily, to theintercom and buzzed for a nurse. Then she went back to the crib. Of course.Four arms, only four, and what was she going to do now?She decided to be brave and sensible. If she hadreally seen it, the staff had to know. And if she hadn't, and she didn't wakeup, then she was ill, and she should get the help she needed.


The chief nurse tucked Tilda in and watched her driftoff to sleep, sedative patch in place. Then she went back to her station andcalled up the monitor footage on Tilda's twins. Well, well.






* CONFIDENTIAL * CLEARANCE CLASS 3 AND ABOVE
LEVI Status Report, 12-15-71Executive Summary
AnatomicalDevelopments
Observation of the Tofa infants has shed some light onthe longstanding question of whether the number of Tofa upper appendages isvariable among the Tofa population. The thickest of the four armlike appendagesis apparently capable of dividing when an additional upper appendage isdesired. . . .


Councilman Kimball bookmarked the spot in his agent'sreport and opened his mail program. He owed an apology to the young man who hadclaimed his poor showing against a Tofa undesirable was due to the sudden appearanceof an extra appendage. Apparently the man had been neither dishonest nor drunk.After discharging that obligation, Kimball made a noteto seek further details as to the divided arms' placement, reach, and muscularpotential. His people needed adequate information to prepare them for futureconfrontations. After all, forewarned — he laughed out loud at the thought —was forearmed.


About the Author
Karen A. Wyle long bio
Karen A. Wyle was born aConnecticut Yankee.  Her father was anengineer, and usually mobile for that era: she moved every few years throughout her childhood and adolescence.  After college in California, law school inMassachusetts, and a mercifully short stint in a large San Francisco law firm,she moved to Los Angeles, where she met her now-husband, who hates L.A.  They eventually settled in Bloomington,Indiana, home of Indiana University.  Shenow considers herself a Hoosier.
Karen's childhood ambitionwas to be the youngest ever published novelist. While writing her first novel at age 10, she was mortified to learn thatsome British upstart had beaten her to the goal at age 9.  She finished that novel nonetheless,attempted another at age 14, and then shifted to poetry.  She made a few attempts at short stories incollege, and then retired from creative writing until starting a family in hermid-30's inspired her to start writing picture book manuscripts.  She produced startlingly creative children,the elder of whom wrote her own first novel in 2009, at age 18, with the helpof NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). Intrigued, Karen decided to try NaNo in 2010.  She completed a very, very rough rough draftof her science fiction novel Twin-Bredand spent the next ten months editing it. She is self-publishing Twin-Bredwith a rollout date of October 15, 2011 -- her older daughter's birthday.
Karen's principal educationin writing has been reading.  She hasbeen a voracious and compulsive reader as long as she can remember.  Do not strand this woman on a plane withoutreading matter!  Karen was an English andAmerican Literature major at Stanford University, which suited her, althoughshe has in recent years developed some doubts about whether studying literatureis, for most people, a good preparation for enjoying it.  Her most useful preparation for writingnovels, besides reading them, has been the practice of appellate law -- inother words, writing large quantities of persuasive prose, on deadline, yearafter year.  Whereas in college, a 3-pagepaper would require hours of pacing the dormitory hallway and pounding her headon its walls, she is now able to sit down and turn out words with minimalangst.  She has one professional writingcredit, an article published in the Indiana Law Journal Supplement and, withminor modifications, in the monthly magazine of the Indiana State BarAssociation.  This article was a"third place recipient" of the Harrison Legal Writing Award.  Whatever that means, it comes with money, aplaque, and a free lunch.
Karen has completed a rough draftof a second novel, tentatively titled Reflections,which is general fiction.  It has twoalternative elevator pitches: "Death is what you make it" and "Do you  need courage in heaven?"  She hopes to start the sequel to Twin-Bred later this fall.
Karen's voice is the productof almost five decades of reading both literary and genre fiction.  It is no doubt also influenced, although shehopes not fatally tainted, by her years of law practice.  Her personal history has led her to focus onoften-intertwined themes of family, communication, the impossibility ofcontrolling events, and the persistence of unfinished business.
Short Bio
KarenA. Wyle was born a Connecticut Yankee, but eventually settled in Bloomington,Indiana, home of Indiana University.  She now considers herself a Hoosier.Wyle's childhood ambition was to be the youngest ever published novelist. While writing her first novel at age 10, she was mortified to learn that someBritish upstart had beaten her to the goal at age 9. 
Wyleis an appellate attorney, photographer, political junkie, and mother of twodaughters. Her voice is the product of almost five decades of reading bothliterary and genre fiction.  It is no doubt also influenced, although shehopes not fatally tainted, by her years of law practice.  Her personalhistory has led her to focus on often-intertwined themes of family,communication, the impossibility of controlling events, and the persistence ofunfinished business.
www.KarenAWyle.net

Manichean, Augustinian, Jinxed and a great adventure for young readers

I reviewed The Jinx by D.F. Lamont recently (read my review of the Jinx here). It's a really fun young readers' adventure that mentions in passing, among other things, Manichean and Augustinian philosophies! So, of course, I had to ask...

Today I'm delighted to interview the author, Dougald Lamont, on my blog:

The Jinx tells of the amazing trials and tribulations of an eighth-grader called Stephen whose life seems suddenly "jinxed" after a bike accident. Is Stephen based on a real person? Hesounds so real, and his bike accident, plus he reaction, seem so verytrue-to-life.
Stephen Grayson, (the 13-year-oldhero of my book The Jinx) and I do have a few events in common in ourlives. 
We both caught our shoe (with footinside) in the front wheel of our ten-speed on the first day of Grade 8; weboth have a brother who did karate, who would jump out and say "defendyourself" and force us to fight; we both spent a gym class getting playingdodgeball where we got hit in the face over and over again. 
But Stephen isn't me, and his familyisn't mine. 
Wheredid the idea for the story of the Jinx come from? I loved the surprising directions the story took me in—did you know where it would go when you first started writing?
The kernel of The Jinx came from adream I had - that I was having very bad luck, and the bad luck was catching,and affecting the people around me, and I ran away to protect my family, onlyto find that creepy monsters were coming after me and I had to use the "badluck power" to fend them off. 
That is the basic core, and I builtthe rest of Stephen's story, around it. 
So the next step was that I had tofigure out how someone could "catch" bad luck. And I had the idea that Stephenwas being affected by probability changing, like it was a natural phenomenonlike air pressure, or a build-up of static electricity, and it was like aslow-motion lightning strike, and Stephen is the first one to get hit, and beaffected, but it is only part of something much worse that is to come. 
I also remembered a story by thegreat sci-fi writer Stanislaw Lem, in his book the Cyberiad, called "TheDragons of Probability." In it, scientists have a machine that adjustsprobability, and he had the idea that some mythical animals are more probablethan others. When you turn up the probability a little bit, dragons startappearing. If you turn it WAY up, really unlikely things start happening. So I had Daedalus actually makereference to it, explaining it as "Lem's principle." In his story, it'sdragons. In my story, it's these creatures called chaons. 
Ilove that name chaons! But please go on...
Stanislaw Lem is one of my favouritewriters, and although my style of writing is very different, I was inspired alot by Lem in this book. The Cyberiad was one of my favourite books as a kidand is still one of my favourite books today. 
When I read it as a child I thoughtof it as funny science-fiction fairy tales about robots and skimmed over thetough stuff. When I grew up, I realized that he was often illustrating genuineproblems in higher mathematics, physics, philosophy, and informationtheory. 
When I wrote it The Jinx, I wantedto do the same thing. I like the idea of a kid reading this book when they are8, or 12, liking it because it is a fun adventure story, and then sitting in aclass when they are 20 and realizing, "Hey, that guy was actually talking aboutinformation theory, or philosophy"
Ilike that idea too—a story that grows with the reader. So now I have to ask youabout the Manichean vs. Augustinian debate—I love the way you included it inconversation without sounding like school… just a cool, intriguing question…
I specifically included theManicheaen vs. Augustinian debate because it comes up in a book by NorbertWeiner, who with Claude Shannon one of the fathers of cybernetics, which is anextension of information theory. 
It is two incredibly different viewsof the universe - basically one where it is actively working against you, andanother where if you can't figure out the secrets of the universe, it's becauseof your own shortcomings.

And there are other ideas I tried to weave into the book, and it's gratifyingthat some young readers just like the adventure, and other ones have realizedthat I am actually playing with these bigger ideas. I hope it makes it abook that people can return to. 
I'msure it does—I certainly enjoyed reading it.Thankyou so much for visiting my blog and answering my questions here. I hope lots ofyoung readers find and enjoy your book—and keep enjoying it as they grow older.
Find out more at:
http://thejinxbook.tumblr.com
The Jinx is available in paperbackfrom Lulu.com,Amazon.comand in digital formats from most online retailers - iTunes, Amazon, Barnes& Noble and more.