Raymond Gaynor's Blog, page 68

Aignos Publishing's New "Screenplay Novel" Genre

I've been around authoring for some years, but I never thought I'd witness the birth of an entirely new genre - not some small modification by adding an adjective here or adverb there, but an entirely new genre! 

I think all of us in the book authoring and publishing world have been wondering if there might be a bridge between youth of today and books. After all, youth today have multi-million-dollar 3-D IMAX movies, YouTube, anime, video games, a veritable cornucopia of visually-directed works spoon-fed to them that don't require one iota of imagination. What could possible re-engage this group to reading? Well, I think I've found it. 


The Screenplay Novel - see CHANG THE MAGIC CAT (Aignos 2017) for example - has less descriptive prose and more succinct visual cues that people reading the book say is half-way between the visual and reading arts. The difference is that the Screenplay Novel engages, but leaves plenty of room for imagination and discovery. 

Want to bring print to reality? A Screenplay Novel has all the necessary elements to allow a group of engaged folks to put it on as a play or even record it on film! 

So, let's hear it for this new genre, with kudos to A. G. Hayes who authored this first in Aignos Publishing's new line of Screenplay Novel works. 

PROPHETIC, NOTHING LESS

When I wrote QUANTUM DEATH (Savant 2017) with A. G. Hayes, I never expected the plot would so quickly transform from techno-political thriller to modern day drama. Take the basic plot: North Korea at the lead, with China watching and cheering, and Russia, dare I say it, coming to the aid of American agents Koski and Falk. Or how about it's cyber-warfare/dark web/The Onion Ring (TOR)-based financing using Bitcoins? And how about the "Quantum Death Machine," originating in Russian and finding its way into North Korean hands? Like TOTAL MELTDOWN (Borgo Wildside 2005) that I wrote with William Maltese, the United States like the EU today, are subject to outside forces determined to force the United States into a perestroika and glasnost of it's own. #quantum #Korea #bitcoin #cyberwarfare #TOR

Quantum Death Turns Real

When A. G. Hayes and I wrote QUANTUM DEATH (Savant 2016), neither of us had any idea that the futuristic plot would prove real. Recently North Korea stepped up its #cyberattacks in a manner not unlike that which we described. #Bitcoins and The Onion Ring (#TOR) "dark internet," both integral parts of the plot have become public watchwords. The #Delphi Method, invented by #Rand Corporation during the "Cold War" era, continues to be used in situations like we described. And Koski and Falk, A. G. Hayes inescapably lovable protagonist couple who work for Cerberus, an off-the-board "just-do-it" agency, called up when political situations get out-of-hand, are busy on their next secret assignment called "Vatican Inc" or "68 Via Condotti." Yes, what used to be a fictitious is rapidly becoming real, if not more than real. QUANTUM DEATH is available in softcover and eBook formats on Amazon.com and from The Publisher's Store. 

Have Pen, Will Travel

It's been a pretty crazy month, requiring some serious traveling, ultimately taking me away from my writing. Hadn't planned to end up in Coos Bay, Oregon, but, well, that's where I found myself for almost a week. It turned out it was just before tourist season and, while sunny in the afternoons, it was foggy, rainy and bitter cold at night and in the early mornings. What I remember most is the trees. Big, full, magnificent evergreens as far as the eye could see. I felt humbled. Some of the taller trees were surely around before cell phones, computers, rockets, airplanes, cars, television, rock'n'roll, maybe even the printing press...an unimaginably "long time ago" by today's reckoning. Before videocameras, tape recorders, even still cameras. Back when people told stories for assurance and entertainment. QUANTUM DEATH - https://www.amazon.com/dp/0996325530 / TOTAL MELTDOWN - https://www.amazon.com/dp/1434403556

HAVE PEN, WILL TRAVEL

It’s been a pretty crazy month, requiring some serious traveling, ultimately taking me away from my writing. Hadn’t planned to end up in Coos Bay, Oregon, but, well, that’s where I found myself for almost a week. It turned out it was just before tourist season and, while sunny in the afternoons, it was foggy, rainy and bitter cold at night and in the early mornings. What I remember most is the trees. Big, full, magnificent evergreens as far as the eye could see. I felt humbled. Some of the taller trees were surely around before cell phones, computers, rockets, airplanes, cars, television, rock’n’roll, maybe even the printing press…an unimaginably “long time ago” by today’s reckoning. Before videocameras, tape recorders, even still cameras. Back when people told stories for assurance and entertainment. QUANTUM DEATH - https://www.amazon.com/dp/0996325530 / TOTAL MELTDOWN - https://www.amazon.com/dp/1434403556

CONGRATULATIONS GOODREADS BOOK GIVEAWAY WINNERS

It's hard to believe that 6 December 2016 is past, signaling the end of my Goodreads Giveaway for ten (10) signed copies of QUANTUM DEATH (Savant 2016) by A. G. Hayes with Raymond Gaynor. My personal congratulation to the winners and also to the 560 entrants who expressed an interest in QUANTUM DEATH. The book is available in both softcover ($16.95 from Amazon.com) and Kindle eBook format ($7.95), and can still be purchased for yourself or as a gift in time for the holidays. I don't know of a better gift that a real book. It's what I give for birthdays and holidays. 


I recently received an email from an avid read who asked if the ending was actually technically plausible. My answer is that most of the technology included is futuristic, but only slightly so and entirely plausible. If you liked the idea (no spoiler) that something "non-real" could be teleported via a quantum connection, then hold onto your hat/seat/horses because the information contained on and within a quantum of energy is already being teleported from one entangled position to another. Yep. It's truly hard to imagine what the next generation's world is going to be like, but that's something as a thriller writer I much enjoy, as much, I hope as you enjoy reading about it. 

And, yes, I'm working on two new stories, "Shadow" and "The Edge of Madness" that both deal with extensions of similar issues. And, yes, I'm still discussing a sequel to QUANTUM DEATH with A. G. Hayes tentatively entitled "The Bridge at Vitorrio Veneto." Watch this blog and my website for more information. 

Have you had a quantum entanglement or strangeness experience you'd like to share? I'd love to hear about it at "gaynor.raymond1Xgmail.com" (substitute "@" for "X"). 

SUPERMOONING

It's here at last, the previous one in 1948 just after the Second Great War, and the next one scheduled for 2034 (the supermoon, not another Great War), assuming we humans are still present on the Earth to view it. Taking its photo, however, was a bit trickier than I'd imagined. 

First, I had trouble catching it rising just above the horizon, as the Koolau Mountains were in the way, meaning that our first view in Honolulu would be at least 45 degrees above horizon, causing Supermoon to optically lose much of its 14% inflationary rate. Brighter, yes, but bigger, well maybe slightly so. Somewhat like Mr. Trump's blustering during the elections. '

Second, it always rains over the Koolau's at night, this one being no exception. I tried my best to tease Supermoon to peek out of the clouds when moonrise over the mountains finally occurred, and, as you can see, it did. That's what I call real mooning. 

And finally: I wanted to take a photo of it using my telescope later in the night after it traversed the sky and repositioned itself beautifully over Honolulu, but, frankly, it was, as promised, very large. Too large, in fact, to view in entirety in my telescope even at lowest power, and by the time I got out my whale spotter binoculars, the late night shore clouds had begun creeping in. 

So here's a supermoon from paradise!

A CELESTIAL VIEW FROM HONOLULU

In an attempt to calm down after the craziness of the presidential election, I pulled out my telescope and directed it south over Honolulu looking early evening for Jupiter and Saturn. The night air is usually humid, saturated with diffused light from the city, and infused with light from a tropical moon, but last night was the exception. It was cool, dry and I was able to catch Saturn as clear as I've ever seen it, with my little Celestron 114 with Baader Planetarium Hyperion Mark III Zoom 24-8 mm lens at high (8 mm). I took tens of photos holding my Leica DM6, telephoto extended, over the viewer. I couldn't capture any of the planet's moons, which, on occasion I've been able to see, and I had to enhance the photo to the point of losing the few minuscule background stars that I could see through the viewer. 

There's something eternal and calming about the planets, especially Saturn, to me. Gazing at the heavens through a telescope, invariably produces more there than meets the naked eye, a sort of reminder that there's more to heaven than we mortals can ever imagine. 

As the minutes drifted by, I began thinking of the protagonist in my newest creative work tentatively entitled "Shadow." Here's an excerpt introducing him:

   "Gary Samuel Johnson was as nondescript a man as possible. Fair-skinned, at five-foot-six inches, he carried 175 pounds of muscle covered in what the few women who noticed him would describe as an external layer of pudgy infant-fat. His unyieldingly-straight, mousy-brown shock of hair, fine sparse body hair, and long angular face made him look more like a docile horse than a mature adult. Indolent and docile, yet fidgety and easily spooked, after forty years of lack of exercise, he felt the way he looked. Only his brilliant diamond-hard hazel-grey eyes betrayed the fiery intelligence that lurked beneath his languid lost-puppy demeanor.

   "To say that his life was a waste of both God and Evolution's efforts, and that his future looked little more than dim would be gross understatements. He had done - accomplished - absolutely nothing, except perhaps survived a malevolent childhood and several failed marriages. Worn, wounded and waiting for nothing in particular, G. Samuel Jackson, or "G" as his few passing friends in life were inclined to call him, was content to shuffle his way from his small nondescript apartment on the East Bay side of San Francisco, into a nondescript bus, for a nondescript ride to the local Salvation Army for some nondescript morning soup."

Viewing Saturn reminded me of the utter insignificance of Gary Samuel Johnson's existence, which, as the story develops, turns out to be so much the opposite. View a planet. Think Gary.  

AND THAT'S ALL I HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THE ELECTION...

I was asked yesterday by a friend who I was going to vote for. An innocuous question, to my surprise, asked in a decidedly acrimonious voice. It was as if whomever I voted for, if it wasn't the same as the person he voted for, our relationship, perhaps even our lifelong friendship would suddenly fall into doubt. 

First, like many Americans, I'm sick of the tsunami of pathos, ethos, keiros and personally interpreted numos, and the almost total lack of the only kind of argument that has any truth value, logos. Hey, not everyone has to be a slave to the social propaganda thats flooding the internet. Just because it's on the social internet and lots of people "like" it doesn't mean it's true. In the end, I'm mainly disappointed. I'd like to cast my vote based on facts rather than, sigh, innuendo. That being said, I constantly remind myself that the president, unlike a dictator, has much less power than people seem to think. Luckily our nation's forefathers had the good sense to create a carefully balanced government, where even the most despotic couldn't easily turn our nation into a dictatorship. Roll over President(?) Putin. 

Second, democracy, despite what is roiling about in both social and political media, is neither dead, nor even close to it. The fact that our minimum two-party system has survived such acrimony, and, through the election process, our candidates have been incisively vetted, giving citizens a chance to vote for the kind of limited CEO of America that we prefer, testifies to that. 

Finally, the USA has in the past, and I expect will again this year, rally behind the new President (whoever he or she is) and Congress, and begin once again working towards solving the problems facing our nation and people. If there was ever a definition of "unAmerican" it would be not doing so. After all, for good or naught, we're in it all together and it's only for four years. As for criminality in high office, think former President Nixon. 

Democracy is not only alive and well in the USA (despite some individual political candidates and their "election machines" efforts to thwart the process), it is doing exactly what it's supposed to do: Help us choose the best leaders possible. It's up to Americans now to respect that process, put away the banners and street demonstrations, and enlist all available resources to work together, leaders and citizens alike, for the betterment of our nation and people. After all, that's what Koski and Falk, and Tripler and Clarke would do. 

GOODREADS HOLIDAY GIVEAWAY - QUANTUM DEATH

It's my pleasure to announce a Goodreads' Holiday Giveaway. Enter between 6 November to 6 December 2016 to win a free first edition softcover copy of A. G. Hayes and Raymond Gaynor's QUANTUM DEATH (Savant 2016) signed by co-author Raymond Gaynor.


To enter, go to 

https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/210316-quantum-death

A great holiday gift for yourself, your family, friends or a discriminating thriller reader on your holiday gift list.

Wishing you the best of luck!