Phil Giunta's Blog, page 35

Book Review: A. E. Van Vogt’s Renaissance

In the year 2023, a revolution is brewing against the alien overlords of Earth known as the Utt. Forty years prior, after their swift and peaceful subjugation of every world government, it had been the Utt’s conclusion that most of planet’s tribulations had been the fault of men. Thus, the Utt enacted laws that made women the dominant sex. All men are required to undergo a procedure that leaves them nearsighted and are forced to wear chemically treated glasses that somehow leaves them emasculated.

However, when Peter Grayson, a physicist for a chemical company, finds both lenses of his rose-tinted glasses cracked, he uses a special transparent tape to repair them—and quickly discovers that his simple repair nullifies the submissive power of the glasses and liberates him from the oppression of his domineering wife.

Shortly after, Grayson finds himself embroiled in the male revolution against the Utt, a situation which he attempts to manipulate for his own personal gain…

I found Renaissance to be the weakest of all Van Vogt books I’ve read so far. Published in 1979, the quality was nowhere near his earlier work. The concept is preposterous and served as little more than an opportunity for a plot laden with blatant and cringeworthy male wish fulfillment. Worse, the prose was clunky and riddled with awkward sentence structure, inelegant wording (ex: “From that very first moment, being scientifically trained, Grayson did his trying-to-understand-with-his-knowledge.”), and scenes that served little to no purpose. Some plot elements that held the promise of an ultimate climax never paid off in the end.

If you want to explore the best works of Van Vogt, avoid Renaissance and read his earlier work such as Slan, The World of Null-A, Voyage of the Space Beagle, The Twisted Men, The Weapon Shops of Isher, and The Weapon Makers, to name a few.

First Draft… FINISHED!

And with 1,006 words, the first draft of my SF novel is FINISHED! Total word count: 53,123.

NOW… the fun begins! Actually, I’ll the save the editing fun for later because…

 

Dreams with Sharp Teeth

At Farpoint 26 SF Con next month, it will be my honor to co-host, with Peter David, a screening of Dreams with Sharp Teeth, the 2008 documentary about one of the most awarded writers in history, Harlan Ellison (1934-2018).

The film stars Harlan, Neil Gaiman, Robin Williams, Ron Moore, Peter David, and others. Harlan was one of my inspirations to become a writer, and he was best friends with Peter. I was grateful  when producer and director, Erik Nelson, granted permission.

 

About This Writing Stuff…

This week on the blog, Ceridwen Dovey expounds the concept of “bibliotherapy” and the restorative power of reading fiction. Kristen Lamb encourages writer to be secret-keepers… and to get more rest. Jami Gold explains what it means to add layers to your characters and Anne R. Allen councils us against worrying too much about plot purloiners.

Over at Career Authors, Paula Munier cites three mistakes by debut writers that potentially exasperate agents and editors while Glenn Miller advises us on how to be trustworthy writers. C.S. Lakin offers tips on preparing your scenes, Sarah Chauncey talks effective use of POV in memoir, and from Mythcreants, Chris Winkle enumerates six manuscript mistakes that a copy editor might (or might not) help you fix.

Enjoy!

Can Reading Make You Happier? by Ceridwen Dovey

Secret-Keepers: Generate Page-Turning, Nerve-Shredding Tension and Rest for Success and Why Busy is Seriously Overrated by Kristen Lamb

Make Characters Unique with Layering by Jami Gold

What if Somebody Steals Your High-Concept Book Idea? by Anne R. Allen

Are You Making One of These Risky Moves for Writers? by Paula Munier

This is What Happens When You Stop Lying to Readers by Glenn Miller

Questions to Consider When Plotting a Scene by C.S. Lakin via Jane Friedman

The Tricky Issue of POV in Memoir by Sarah Chauncey via Jane Friedman

Six Common Wordcraft Mistakes in Manuscripts by Chris Winkle

Keeping Up Appearances…

Over the next six months, I’ll be attending the following conventions, conferences, and book signings. I hope to see you at some of these events!

Farpoint SF Con – Feb. 8-10. Hunt Valley, MD. Participating in the book fair and various discussion panels. Also co-hosting, with Peter David, a Sunday afternoon screening of Dreams with Sharp Teeth, the documentary film about Harlan Ellison.

The Write Stuff Conference – Mar. 23. Bethlehem, PA. I’m not presenting at this one, but I will have a table at the book fair. The Greater Lehigh Valley Writers Group will also launch their latest anthology, Rewriting the Past, in which I have a story.

The Great Philly Comic Con – Apr. 12-14. Oaks, PA. Will have a table for the weekend.

Battle of the Books – Apr. ?? Whitehall Library. Whitehall, PA. Exact date TBA. Sponsored by the Greater Lehigh Valley Writers Group. Three writers

Shore Leave 41 SF Con – July 12-14. Hunt Valley, MD. Participating in the Meet the Pros book fair and various discussion panels.

Also, sometime in the spring I hope to attend the Delaware book launch for Beach Pulp, the next anthology from Cat & Mouse Press in which I will have two stories.

 

Book Review: The Weapon Makers by A.E. Van Vogt

Two thousand years in the future, the solar system is united under the monarchy of the Isher family. To keep the government in check and ensure against tyranny, a guild known as the Weapon Shops has for generations provided technologically advanced arms to the citizens and maintained a close watch on imperial affairs. Naturally, this arrangement often sets guild and government at odds with one another.

The situation reaches a boiling point when Empress Innelda learns of a Weapon Shop spy among her court in the form of Captain Robert Hedrock. When the captain learns that Innelda plans to execute him, Hedrock mounts a bold and public defense, which results in his temporary expulsion from the palace. However, Hedrock learns that Innelda is concealing the existence of an interstellar drive from the Weapons Shops and the public in the hopes of bolstering Isher supremacy.

On this way out of the palace, Hedrock is arrested by officers of the Weapons Shops on the charge of subterfuge against the guild! He is brought before the council and interrogated about his mysterious background. When his answers fail to satisfy them, the councilmen order his execution. After mounting yet another daring escape, Hedrock sets out to reveal Innelda’s clandestine project to the world—an adventure which pits him against criminal elements on Earth and bizarre telepathic aliens in interstellar space…

A sequel to The Weapon Shops of Isher, The Weapon Makers begins as a fast-paced tale of intrigue that occasionally waxes melodramatic and, late in the plot, veers off course into ethereal concepts and bombastic language that feel contrived, especially during Hedrock’s encounters with the telepathic aliens. The story is a mélange of fantasy and science fiction that doesn’t always mesh well. Nevertheless, Van Vogt’s reputation as a master of imaginative fiction remains intact.

Five Weeks until Farpoint…

The 26th annual Farpoint SF Convention is only five weeks away! As always, I look forward to reuniting with so many wonderful friends and fellow writers and fending off the winter doldrums, at least for a weekend.

Celebrity guests include Wallace Shawn, Rob Paulsen, and Maurice Lamarche. Writer guests include Peter David, Michael Jan Friedman, Bob Greenberger, Howard Weinstein, Marc Okrand, Aaron Rosenberg, David Mack, Keith RA DeCandido, Russ Colchamiro, Danielle Ackley-McPhail, Derek Tyler Attico, Heather E. Hutsell, Kelli Fitzpatrick, Steven H. Wilson, Phil Giunta, and many more.

I will also have two new titles available at the con:

LIKE MOTHER, LIKE DAUGHTERS, one-half of the double horror novel from Firebringer Press that also includes Steven H. Wilson’s vampire tale, FREEDOM’S BLOOD.

A PLAGUE OF SHADOWS, the latest paranormal fiction anthology from Smart Rhino Publications. This collection offers twenty unique ghost stories including my haunted car tale “Bottom of the Hour,” about a man who can hear death coming.

What Happened and What’s Ahead…

I debated whether to even bother adding my voice to the requisite “year in review” posts that always sprout like weeds during this last week in December. As does every year, 2018 delivered a melange of relief, joy, and misery.

January began with the completion of a short story, “Burn After Writing.” It was my tribute to the irascible Harlan Ellison, one of my favorite writers of all time. Little did I know it was also a portent of a tragedy to come just five months later.

In February, I was elated to win second place in the Farpoint 25 short story contest in Maryland. In addition to receiving a handsome trophy, my story, “All That Matters Is What You Believe” will be published in the program book at the upcoming Farpoint 26 convention. After that, publication rights revert to me and the story might appear on my website shortly after. Stay tuned!

March brought with it the Write Stuff writers conference in Bethlehem, PA. I was off the hook as a presenter this year, but attended for two days and enjoyed the full day fiction writing class led by NYT bestseller Bob Mayer and the various 50-minute presentations on topics ranging from Wattpad to world building, from editing to marketing, from time management to building suspense, and more.  Check out details for the next Write Stuff in March! 

The Write Stuff is organized by the Greater Lehigh Valley Writers Group and 2019 will see the publication of our fourth anthology, Rewriting the Past. As usual, the book will showcase stories, essays, and poems written by members of the group, including my lighthearted tale of nostalgia, “Memory Lane Ain’t What It Used To Be.”

My wife and I also attended our last Monster Mania and Chiller Theatre conventions in March and April. We’ve been attending both cons twice a year for over a decade, but we made the decision to trim them from the budget this year. Still, it was a grand exit, meeting celebs like Kathleen Turner, Ally Sheedy, Sean Astin, Steven Weber, John Schuck, Ed Begley, Jr., Nicholas Lea, and Raj Singh.

The rest of spring proceeded without much excitement, other than the usual bouts of anxiety and depression that ebb and flow. I learned that Cat & Mouse Press—a publisher I had worked with in 2016— was preparing a new anthology called Beach Pulp and seeking submissions of retro “pulp” stories in the speculative fiction, mystery, and romance genres and set along the Delmarva coast. I happened to have a piece called “The Celestials” ready to go and sent it in as soon as soon as the submission window opened.

The second paragraph of this retrospective alluded to a tragedy in the middle of the year. On June 27, Harlan Ellison, one of the most awarded writers in history, died in his home in LA at the age of 84. Harlan was one of my literary heroes and while his cantankerous, intractable personality offended some, I found it entertaining. To commemorate him, I watched his documentary, Dreams with Sharp Teeth, for what was probably the 25th time. Fortunately, I still have much of his work yet to read.

Early July brought the 40th anniversary of the Shore Leave SF convention  in Hunt Valley, Maryland with such celebs as William Shatner, Ming-Na, Allison Scagliotti, and more. It was a wonderful weekend spent with my fandom family, selling and signing books, and participating in a variety of discussion panels on writing and publishing.

From Hunt Valley I drove straight to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware for another kind of shore leave. The Delaware coast is one of my favorite vacation spots. My wife and I always look forward to renting a house there for a week every July with friends, and for the past four years, my friend Renee Wilson and I have made parasailing a must-do tradition.

As soon as I returned from vacation, I was laid off from my job of 17 years. It was not entirely unexpected. My team and I knew changes were coming as our parent company had been assuming increasing control of our IT systems for months. My manager’s position was eliminated while I was in Rehoboth. Fortunately, the company was kind enough to offer an equitable severance package.

August saw me applying for jobs on a daily basis and also writing a new SF short story called “Tapestry,” which I submitted to Cat & Mouse Press for their aforementioned Beach Pulp anthology. Also, my 2017 story “Bottom of the Hour” was soon on its way to publication in a paranormal fiction anthology called A Plague of Shadows by Smart Rhino Publications.

One month later, my wife and I celebrated our fifth anniversary with a long weekend in Indiana, PA visiting the Jimmy Stewart Museum, followed by an afternoon in the Amish farmlands of Smicksburg, PA which also offers a quaint village of antique and craft shops.

Unfortunately, four days later I landed in the ER due to a mounting health issue that had become unbearably painful. I’ll spare you the details, but within a day, I was back to 100% just in time for two job interviews with local companies.

Also in September, I worked with writer pal and Firebringer Press owner, Steven H. Wilson, to launch a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for our latest publication.

Firebringer Take Two is a double horror novel in the format of the vintage ACE double novels. The book combines Steve’s vampire tale, Freedom’s Blood with my paranormal mystery novel, Like Mother, Like Daughters. At the same time, I arranged a book launch at the Philadelphia Science Fiction Convention (Philcon) for November. Busy month!

October brought better news including a job offer and the release of the anthology, A Plague of Shadows, containing my haunted car story “Bottom of the Hour.”  My wife and I attended a delightful book launch party in Newark, Delaware organized by Weldon Burge of Smart Rhino Publications and Joanne M. Reinbold of the Written Remains Writers Guild. Ten of the contributing writers were on hand to sign copies and read excerpts from their stories… and there was cake!

Two weeks later, I trekked back across PA to the Ligonier Camp and Conference Center nestled in the Allegheny Mountains for the weeklong Mindful Writers Retreat organized by Larry Schardt and Kathie Shoop. Blessed with gorgeous autumn weather, 21 writers gathered for four days to focus solely on our projects for 8 to 12 hours per day and share meals in between. I made excellent progress on my SF novel (4,500 words) and outlined a new short story.

While I was there, I received a call from Cat & Mouse Press announcing that they accepted not just one but both of my submissions to Beach Pulp. I enjoyed every minute of the retreat and look forward to returning next October provided I have enough vacation time to cover it.

Speaking of which, I started the new job on October 29 as the sole IT tech for a medium-sized beverage bottling company with a site in the Lehigh Valley, PA and another, smaller facility in southeastern New Jersey. One of my colleagues flew in from Texas to provide about three days of training on the environment. It was hardly sufficient, but enough to get me started. Since then, daily stress has ranged from high to extreme as I struggle to acclimate while providing tech support and catching up on the two-month backlog since my predecessor left.

The first two weeks in November were a blur. While I became accustomed to my FT position, I prepared for the launch of Firebringer Take Two at Philcon by having cover posters made at Staples and designing postcards through Vistaprint. Meanwhile, the book itself went to press and Steve ordered enough copies for the book launch and to fulfill rewards for our Kickstarter backers. The launch was modest but fun and after the con, I packed and shipped all paperback copies to our backers and to those who had kindly volunteered as advance readers during the summer.

From there, we rolled into the holiday season and here we are, about ready to bid farewell to 2018. While I’m grateful for all of the year’s blessings—and for another trip around the sun with my amazing wife and people I’m honored to call friends—I’m still recovering from the abrupt changes, health issues, and the hectic pace of the past five months. Stress is high and my depression draws power from the gloom of winter, but I glean hope and strength from all the opportunities awaiting us in the coming year.

As trite as it may seem, I hope that 2019 brings long overdue peace, joy, love, and prosperity to all of us.

End of Year Ebook Sale!

Now through January 1, you can buy ebook versions of all three of my novels and both Middle of Eternity anthologies for 50% – 75% off on Smashwords. Just click the links below and use code SEY50 or SEY75 at checkout. Thank you for your supporting small press authors and have a wonderful New Year!

Testing the Prisoner.  Regularly $4.99. Sale price: $1.25 (Code: SEY75)

By Your Side. Regularly $2.99. Sale price: $1.50 (Code: SEY50)

Somewhere in the Middle of Eternity. Regularly $2.99. Sale price: $1.50 (Code: SEY50)

Elsewhere in the Middle of Eternity. Regularly $2.99. Sale price: $1.50 (Code: SEY50)

Freedom’s Blood / Like Mother, Like Daughters double novel. Regularly $2.99. Sale price: $1.50 (Code: SEY50)

 

 

 

 

Book Review: Carl Sagan’s Pale Blue Dot

In this sequel to the original Cosmos, Carl Sagan again reminds us of the intrinsic human desire to wander, and expands on many of the social and scientific topics discussed in the 1980 television series and accompanying book. Here, Sagan begins with primitive humans migrating across the planet for survival as much as to push the boundaries of a given frontier. From there, Sagan offers a personal anecdote, describing the hardships of his grandparents’ life in Eastern Europe and their fretful immigration to the United States.

A full chapter details the conflicts between science and religion in the early Catholic church and argues that the human race gained a measure of humility after reluctantly accepting the fact that we are not at the center of the universe.  As he did often in Cosmos, Sagan delves into the history of astronomical advancements including early discoveries of the larger moons around Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus by Galileo, Huygens, Cassini, Kuiper, and Lassell as well as the naming (and renaming) of the first seven planets by the ancients—Earth, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn—and how this inspired the development of the seven-day calendar week.

Readers are also treated to rich scientific detail about the planets and 60 plus natural satellites in our solar system based on data from the Viking, Galileo, Cassini-Huygens, Pioneers 10 and 11, and Voyager 1 and 2 probes. Further chapters delve into the atmospheric and surface compositions of the worlds, asteroids, and moons before Sagan goes on to expound three major threats to Earth’s environment—ozone depletion, global warming, and nuclear winter.

Sagan’s hopes and visions for the future of manned space exploration through international cooperation are inspiring for all their possibilities, but he is also pragmatic and laments the financial erosion and bureaucratic ossification of the space program over the past three decades and an unfortunate public shift in focus away from planetary exploration. However, in 1994, when Pale Blue Dot was published, it’s difficult to say whether Sagan predicted the dawn of private space agencies—such as SpaceX, Virgin Galactic, Blue Origin, and others—that would fill the void left by the government.

As always, Carl Sagan makes it clear that by exploring other worlds, we open our minds to possibilities far beyond the scope of our limited knowledge and experience bound up on this insignificant pale blue dot situated on the outer edge of a spiral arm lost among billions of stars and planets in the Milky Way.

“We’re made of star stuff. We are a way for the cosmos to know itself.” – Carl Sagan, Cosmos.