Randy Dutton's Blog
July 2, 2012
First Place
'Obsession' was awarded first place in a June 2012 short-story writing contest (LinkedIn Writers, a subgroup of Creative Designers and Writers). The story had to comply with these contest rules: Between 500-750 words; Setting: a waterfront location; Theme: Planning can lead to success or a desire to escape; Inner Conflict: Someone does not want to be there (the reader should find out why; Highlight: a camouflaged villain, a mask, or a disguise; Genre: your choice (Mystery, Romance, Suspense, Thriller, Sci Fi, Fantasy, Horror, or mixture).
April 6, 2012
Review from Heartland Institute
Carbon Trap review from Jay Lehr, Science Director of the Heartland Institute, "Until now only the late great Michael Crichton dared to tell the fraudulent global warming story in novel "State of Fear" that cited all the science that puts the lie to the fearmongering going on for two decades. Now Randy Dutton has followed suit with an incredible story of action and intrigue that will excite you and delight you and inform you just how bad things could be if the bad guys win."
February 23, 2012
Character Development
Creating a character is easy...if you like stereotypes. I don’t, so where then to derive your ideas? Most would tell you to look at friends, family, and co-workers. That’s good for a start, but often they may not be edgy enough to grab a reader’s attention. So stretch your contacts to acquaintances, passersby, and social media. Watch that guy on the street corner hawking wares, doing what it takes to divert your attention so he can make a buck, legally or otherwise. Study the people attired and acting unlike anyone else, who, when society starts imitating them, change again. Pay attention to the random people trying to friend you. Check on their story, sometimes it’s fraudulent and with a hidden agenda. A little research and their true motives may be discerned. In the early 1980s I didn’t understand Neapolitans. I was stationed in Naples, Italy – with three days driving experience, I felt I was in the midst of chaos. I literally pulled over to study traffic at a crazy intersection trying to figure out their driving rules. Finally, it dawned on me, forget the traffic lights, whoever got their fender in front of the other had the right away. From then on I loved Naples. Watch people...figure it out.
Another way to develop a character is to first determine what type of lifestyle, attitude, or pain you want your character to embody – then go to where they congregate. For my book, The Carbon Trap, I chose for the male protagonist what might start off as a stereotypical character, intelligent, star quarterback in college, war hero, then layered on the angst – feeling responsible for others resulting in his violent retribution of a perceived wrong, above the knee amputation and chronic pain, extreme personal risk-taking by having unapproved invasive technology integrated into his body. For this, one doesn’t need to go far, just visit a VA hospital and you’ll see heroes packed into crowded waiting rooms, often treated as cattle by nice but officious staff, and being recipients of less than cutting edge technology. What an area to breed resentment. Then, let your characters breathe, see where they take you. My female protagonist starts off as an extremely amoral antagonist – brilliant, beautiful, talented, and deadly. Then I layered on her angst, backstorying her as a victim who lost faith and turned angry, which morphed into calculating and revengeful. Success turns her cold and selfish, and emotionally alone. A character being rescued, even from themself, should not be a Disneyesque caricature but rather reveal personal struggle that requires time and patience from others. While I was fairly certain my perception of how the character would behave was accurate, I backed it up with considerable psychological research.
After you’ve created your characters, discuss it with someone you know well and who had good insight. Feedback on the reality of your character is important, but don’t compromise on key personality traits just to appease sensitivities or soften the storyline. Being edgy often is what will set your story apart from others, and create the buzz you seek.
Another way to develop a character is to first determine what type of lifestyle, attitude, or pain you want your character to embody – then go to where they congregate. For my book, The Carbon Trap, I chose for the male protagonist what might start off as a stereotypical character, intelligent, star quarterback in college, war hero, then layered on the angst – feeling responsible for others resulting in his violent retribution of a perceived wrong, above the knee amputation and chronic pain, extreme personal risk-taking by having unapproved invasive technology integrated into his body. For this, one doesn’t need to go far, just visit a VA hospital and you’ll see heroes packed into crowded waiting rooms, often treated as cattle by nice but officious staff, and being recipients of less than cutting edge technology. What an area to breed resentment. Then, let your characters breathe, see where they take you. My female protagonist starts off as an extremely amoral antagonist – brilliant, beautiful, talented, and deadly. Then I layered on her angst, backstorying her as a victim who lost faith and turned angry, which morphed into calculating and revengeful. Success turns her cold and selfish, and emotionally alone. A character being rescued, even from themself, should not be a Disneyesque caricature but rather reveal personal struggle that requires time and patience from others. While I was fairly certain my perception of how the character would behave was accurate, I backed it up with considerable psychological research.
After you’ve created your characters, discuss it with someone you know well and who had good insight. Feedback on the reality of your character is important, but don’t compromise on key personality traits just to appease sensitivities or soften the storyline. Being edgy often is what will set your story apart from others, and create the buzz you seek.
February 17, 2012
Where to Get Plot Ideas
From what obscure sources do you get your creative plots? I’m a Crichton fan. For me, story ideas are taken, not from the headlines, but the trade journals, blogs, press releases, and obscure comments to articles. By the time I see an issue in the mainstream headlines, I know a hundred others are writing about it. I like to be cutting edge so avoid the obvious. I’m a member of numerous science newsletters, blogs, and groups. I’m a skeptic and contrarian – I seek out the obscure and I don’t believe all that I read. And it helps that my wife is a freelance science writer specializing in genetic engineering and computer security. She’s always willing to throw ideas around, and a simple comment about an item she ran across can have me scurrying to do more research as happened with a little known computer hacking capability that allows the compromising of smart buildings, vehicles, and medical devices. A sounding board is a valuable asset to any writer. When I read a science article emanating from a press release, I read the reader comments, often from those in the relevant science or even business field. They often are pointing out the articles’ absurdities, weaknesses, and missed opportunities. I presume all articles are flawed, and the writer or magazine has an agenda, or at least a bias. From the data I ask the salient questions – Who stands to gain? What are the good and bad consequences? Who doesn’t want this, and why? What wasn’t mentioned? What assumptions did they make, that are wrong?
I demonstrate the effects of my eclectic data mining in my ecopolitical thriller, The Carbon Trap. Everyone talks about rising atmospheric CO2, but I flip that. What if CO2 were to plunge through mankind’s actions? After all, CO2 used to be 7,000ppm and dropped to 280ppm before the industrial revolution. I presume there are millions of numbers guys like me who can identify trends, but to date have never seen anyone else ask what I would presume is an obvious question. At the rate of decline, how long would it have been before Earth’s atmosphere hit 150ppm? That is the likely CO2 concentration where nearly all plants on Earth suffocate. With a plot premise as such, I then ask how could CO2 be reduced, and is it likely? That set me on a quest to check government research and journals that validate my presumption that it already is in the works – government and industry are feverishly working on genetically modifying life to convert carbon rich biomass into fuels, chemicals, and precursors; and to sequester carbon so it is inaccessible. That then becomes the plot. But it doesn’t end there. As I dig deeper into the research, I run across other obscure technologies, and instead of dismissing them for being a diversion, I create a file for each with a short plot line and file it. This one book series has thus presented me with no less than a dozen different book ideas.
I demonstrate the effects of my eclectic data mining in my ecopolitical thriller, The Carbon Trap. Everyone talks about rising atmospheric CO2, but I flip that. What if CO2 were to plunge through mankind’s actions? After all, CO2 used to be 7,000ppm and dropped to 280ppm before the industrial revolution. I presume there are millions of numbers guys like me who can identify trends, but to date have never seen anyone else ask what I would presume is an obvious question. At the rate of decline, how long would it have been before Earth’s atmosphere hit 150ppm? That is the likely CO2 concentration where nearly all plants on Earth suffocate. With a plot premise as such, I then ask how could CO2 be reduced, and is it likely? That set me on a quest to check government research and journals that validate my presumption that it already is in the works – government and industry are feverishly working on genetically modifying life to convert carbon rich biomass into fuels, chemicals, and precursors; and to sequester carbon so it is inaccessible. That then becomes the plot. But it doesn’t end there. As I dig deeper into the research, I run across other obscure technologies, and instead of dismissing them for being a diversion, I create a file for each with a short plot line and file it. This one book series has thus presented me with no less than a dozen different book ideas.
Why this book?
While some take the path less traveled. I've often looked at the two visible trails -- and gone bushwhacking. 'What are the others bypassing?'
I'm a skeptic, have been for most of my life. Through my military career, I was been responsible for personnel, budgets, logistics, or contracts, many of which I've challenged senior officers and civilians on the methods, costs, and legality. I've challenged everything that didn't make legal, technical or financial sense while as a supervisor in the City of Long Beach, CA; as a VP of a packaging technology company; as a fiscal conservative candidate for the Washington State Legislature. Often, I've won, sometimes I been the recipient of retaliation. I've long accepted that life is messy. When confronted with yet another challenge, I've always ruminated with the phrase 'If not me, then who? If not now, then when?' as a motivator.
So it was with The Carbon Series. For years I've been reading both sides of global warming issue and questioned why neither side looked at the more significant issues. CO2, is it good or bad for the planet? Since carbon is a finite resources and the oceans are a sink, at what point will the biosphere be depleted? If mankind hadn't started recycling carbon back into the air by burning fossil fuels, how long would it have taken for CO2 concentrations to drop below, what I term, 'The brown zone' -- the level when nearly all plants on Earth die?
This series is intended to educate as well as entertain. I cherish constructive feedback, and will make every effort to respond to serious questions. Is my book based upon real science? Yes, but I've also taken some license in how it's used, and in projections.Randy Dutton
I'm a skeptic, have been for most of my life. Through my military career, I was been responsible for personnel, budgets, logistics, or contracts, many of which I've challenged senior officers and civilians on the methods, costs, and legality. I've challenged everything that didn't make legal, technical or financial sense while as a supervisor in the City of Long Beach, CA; as a VP of a packaging technology company; as a fiscal conservative candidate for the Washington State Legislature. Often, I've won, sometimes I been the recipient of retaliation. I've long accepted that life is messy. When confronted with yet another challenge, I've always ruminated with the phrase 'If not me, then who? If not now, then when?' as a motivator.
So it was with The Carbon Series. For years I've been reading both sides of global warming issue and questioned why neither side looked at the more significant issues. CO2, is it good or bad for the planet? Since carbon is a finite resources and the oceans are a sink, at what point will the biosphere be depleted? If mankind hadn't started recycling carbon back into the air by burning fossil fuels, how long would it have taken for CO2 concentrations to drop below, what I term, 'The brown zone' -- the level when nearly all plants on Earth die?
This series is intended to educate as well as entertain. I cherish constructive feedback, and will make every effort to respond to serious questions. Is my book based upon real science? Yes, but I've also taken some license in how it's used, and in projections.Randy Dutton
