Phil Giunta's Blog, page 17
February 7, 2021
Book Review: The Stone God Awakens by Philip Jose Farmer
Encased in stone for millions of years as a result of a failed experiment, atomic scientist Ulysses Singing Bear is liberated from his imprisonment by a bolt of lightning during a battle between two races of bipedal creatures. One group appears to have evolved from cats while the other, raccoons. Ulysses soon learns that humans have long since become extinct and the earth populated by sentient beings evolved from familiar animals of the late 20th century.
As Ulysses acclimates to his new environment, the Wufea come to worship him as a god and ask for his help in defeating the Great Devourer known as Wurutana. To uphold his status as a deity, Ulysses has little choice but to agree and, along with an army of Wufea warriors, treks across the wilderness to do battle with what he understands to be an enormous tree that is spreading across the land. Along the way, he manages to form a truce between the Wufea and their enemy, the Wagarondit. He even recruits Wagarondit warriors to join the offensive.
All the while, they are guided by Ghlikh, a pygmy creature with batwings who offers Ulysses information about the land and peoples ahead of them, including a village of humans who live along the southern coast. In order to reach them, however, Ulysses and his armies must cross Wurutana. Yet, Ulysses senses that Ghlikh is withholding information and possibly leading them into a trap.
Will Ulysses and his troops survive their passage through Wurutana and their encounters with the treacherous denizens within its vast network of tangled branches, vines, trunks, and waterways?
At its core, The Stone God Awakens is a fish out of water adventure much like Farmer’s The Green Odyssey published 13 years earlier, or Jack Vance’s Planet of Adventure series, or even The Time Machine by H.G. Welles. In this case, Farmer adds a few imaginative twists including the evolution of various animal species, an uncommon antagonist, and the development of plant-based science and engineering. The fact that an atomic scientist displays such exceptional prowess in survival, military tactics, and political leadership is, at times, a stretch. Still, The Stone God Awakens is another outstanding tale from one of the giants of the genre.
February 2, 2021
My (Virtual) Farpoint Schedule
If you are planning to attend Farpoint SF Convention (via Gather.Town) on February 20-21, here is my panel schedule. The full con schedule and instructions for using Gather.Town will be posted on their website soon.
Hope to see you there!
Firebringer Press Presents
Sat 2/20
11:00AM
Got Enough Science?
Sat 2/20
1:00PM
This Was Not The Dystopia I Ordered
Sun 2/21
NOON
January 28, 2021
About This Writing Stuff…
This week, learn how to deal with writer burnout from Tom Meitner, and let attorney Joseph Perry explain the critical components of a publishing contract.
At Career Authors, Erin Celello urges us to take our story idea on a date while Hank Phillippi Ryan offers advice on self-editing.
Kelly Jensen reminds us of the value of mood to both writer and reader while over at the The Write Practice, Joslyn Chase and Ruthanne Reid discuss the proper use of cause and effect and the elements of plot, respectively.
Janice Hardy give us some strong opening lines and Anthony Ehlers shows us how to be visual storytellers.
All that and a little more. Enjoy!
Stretched to Your Limits? How to Avoid—and Cure—Writing Burnout by Tom Meitner
Know Your Rights: Key Provisions in a Publishing Contract by Joseph Perry via Anne R. Allen
How to Cut 20,000 Words by Hank Phillippi Ryan
4 Questions to Ask Before You Start Writing that Book by Erin Celello
How Much Really Needs to Be in Your Novel’s Opening Sentence by Janice Hardy
5 Tips on How to Fit Your Book’s Hook into a Super Short Amazon Ad by Bryan Cohen
10 Powerful Visual Storytelling Techniques for Writers by Anthony Ehlers
How to Maximize the Power of Cause and Effect in Your Stories by Joslyn Chase
What is Plot? The 6 Elements of Plot and How to Use Them by Ruthanne Reid
Mood is the Most Underrated Literary Device—and the Most Valuable by Kelly Jensen
Wattpad to Be Acquired for $600 Million by Korean Internet Conglomerate Naver by Todd Spangler for Variety
Class Action Suit: Amazon and Publishers Face Price Collusion by Personanondata
January 17, 2021
Book Review: Victory by Lester del Rey
After 14 years in space defending the planet Meloa from an incursion by the Throm, Captain Duke O’Neill returns to find Kordule, the capital of Meloa, devastated after a series of Throm raids that occurred over the past few months.
To make matters worse, Earth remained neutral and refused to intervene on behalf Meloa. For this, O’Neill holds a bitter grudge against his home planet and refuses to return. Rather, he decides to remain on Meloa. He first tracks down his wife, Ronda, who survived the raids, but is living in squalor along with many other humans and native Meloans. O’Neill soon learns that his marriage was a sham from the beginning and Ronda wants nothing more to do with him.
Meanwhile, another war is brewing between the humanoid Kloomirians and the Earth colony Cathay and yet again, Earth maintains its position of neutrality. With no job prospects on Meloa, O’Neill attempts to reenlist on behalf of Cathay, but Director Flannery of the Earth Foreign Office has other ideas for the soldier, one that will explain the psychology behind Earth’s apparent cowardice.
Victory begins as a story of a bitter, displaced war veteran with few prospects and ends with the lesson the maturation of cultures from destructive warmongering to peaceful coexistence.
Before She’s Gone Forever
January 15, 2021
About This Writing Stuff…
This week, Ken Miyamoto provides a regimen for becoming a screenwriter in one year. Chris Winkle offers suggestions for maintaining tension during those in-between scenes (often called sequels) while Donald Maass shows us how to meld the mundane and spectacular in our stories to suspend the reader’s disbelief.
We delve into all things editing with Patti Callhan Henry, PJ Parrish, and Jim Dempsey. Julie Glover reminds us of how real life can be fodder for fiction, and NYT bestselling author Jeffrey Deaver reveals his 13 rules for writing fiction that sells.
All that a little more. Enjoy!
365 Days: How to Become a Screenwriter in One Year by Ken Miyamoto
Self-Editing Secret: Listen Carefully by Patti Callahan Henry
Editing: The Three Levels of Hell by PJ Parrish
What to Expect from an Editor by Jim Dempsey
Five Ways to Restore Tension by Chris Winkle
The Real vs. The Unreal by Donald Maass
How Much of Our Real Life Shows Up in Our Fiction? by Julie Glover
List of Fantasy Magazines and Journals by Richie Billing
10 Things Screenwriters Don’t Need to Worry About by Ken Miyamoto
Jeffrey Deaver: Thirteen Rules for Writing Commercial Fiction by Diana Belchase (video)
January 11, 2021
Weathering the “Perfect Storm”
January 10, 2021
Book Review: A Thousand Degrees Below Zero by Murray Leinster
In the middle of summer, an ice floe materializes in New York harbor, leaving two ships in distress. During the ensuing confusion, a strange black aircraft descends and hovers over the scene before vanishing as quickly as it appeared. Shortly after, several more ice “cakes” form without warning in the Straits of Gibraltar, Folkestone Harbor, and Yokohama.
With panic mounting across the globe, a manifesto is sent to the British government from a man named Wladislaw Varrhus, who announces his intention to assume control of all world governments and establish himself as dictator. If the nations fail to meet his demands, more waterways will be frozen, disrupting commerce.
The American military consults with one Professor Hawkins and his assistant Teddy Gerrod, who develop a method to neutralize Varrhus’s “cold bombs”—but the deranged inventor is not so easily foiled. He not only returns with an improved version of his cold bomb, but murders Professor Hawkins in revenge. With the help of the professor’s daughter, Evelyn, and an American pilot named Davis, Teddy devises a plan to defeat Varrhus.
A Thousand Degrees Below Zero was Murray Leinster’s (William Fitzgerald Jenkins) first published novella, featured in the July 1919 edition of The Thrill Book pulp magazine. It’s a typical Leinster story with two-dimensional protagonists and a plot that relies heavily on the science and technology of the time with inventive twists. A fun science fiction adventure tale that would make an enjoyable TV movie.
December 28, 2020
Book Review: Philip Jose Farmer’s Night of Light
After fleeing Earth to the planet Kareen, thief and murderer John Carmody is taken in by two Catholic missionaries who order him on a covert fact-finding mission to the Temple of Boonta on the eve of an annual ritual known as the Night of Light.
Most Kareenans take sedatives to ensure that they sleep during the chaotic and savage Night. To remain awake is to be subjected to torturous hallucinations, to lose one’s sanity, and potentially, to be murdered or commit suicide.
Fearless and irreverent, Carmody mocks all religions, until he defies regulations and remains awake during the Night in an attempt to assassinate a god incarnate named Yess. According to Kareenan beliefs, the goddess Boonta has two sons, the benevolent Yess and the evil Algul, each of whom are reborn through the ages and take turns ruling Kareen.
As me makes his way through the streets to the temple where Yess has concealed himself for the Night, Carmody is confronted by bizarre, disturbing visions that eventually compel him to renounce his old life and convert to Catholicism.
Years later, after returning to Earth and undergoing rehabilitation, Carmody enters the priesthood and is ordered by the Church to return to Kareen and dissuade the latest incarnation of Yess from sending missionaries to spread Boontism to other worlds. However, vestiges of Carmody’s old life reemerge as the Night of Light is once again nearly upon Kareen…
Strong in both plot and character arc, Night of Light is yet another captivating, original, and wildly imaginative example of Philip Jose Farmer’s propensity for using science fiction as a milieu to explore and question long-established religious beliefs. This is also evidenced by some of his other works, such as Inside Outside and the Riverworld series.
December 26, 2020
Goodbye, Dolle’s?
Over the past four years, I wrote a few short stories set in Rehoboth. Three were published by Cat & Mouse Press (based in Lewes, DE). “Tower Sixteen” took second place in the Rehoboth Beach Reads contest in 2016 and was included in the anthology BEACH NIGHTS . In 2019, my stories “Tapestry” and “The Celestials” were published in BEACH PULP .

Just before Christmas, the news broke that Dolle’s Salt Water Taffy would be leaving their current location on the corner of the boardwalk and Rehoboth Avenue when their lease expires on January 31. Although relatively minor, this is yet another disappointing development in 2020. I hope they find a way to keep the iconic Dolle’s sign on display either in its current location or at another prominent site along the boardwalk or Rehoboth Avenue.
While Dolle’s is relocating only three doors away to merge with Ibach’s By The Sea (both shops are owned by the Tom Ibach), other landmark businesses, such as Nicola’s Pizza and The Pond, are moving out of downtown to Route 1. Change is inevitable, but I hope this does not become a trend.