Massimo Marino's Blog: The Ramblings and the Rumblings, page 12

Shadrach in the Furnace – Robert Silverberg

Written by Robert Silverberg in his most creative phase, Shadrach in the Furnace is a novel that describes an unpleasant world: tyranny and degradation dominate the uncertain lives of men, threatened by a terrible genetic disease.

After a long series of political upheavals — started with the eruption of the volcano Cotopaxi — and the terrible War of the Virus, the political world has changed: the power is held by a Mongol dictator, who took over the high-sounding name of Genghis II Mao IV Khan, and governs from the capital Ulan Bator.

The human genetic code is corrupted, and everyone lives under the threat of the Organic Decay, a disease that can erupt at any time and leads inevitably to death.

The antidote Roncevic guarantees, if taken regularly, to maintain dormant the latent time bomb nestled in the genetic code, but stocks are scarce and only a few can access it.

Born in the ghetto of Philadelphia, Shadrach Mordecai sailed through the saddest period of human history and managed to enter the political elite of the planet. Now he’s the personal physician of the dictator of the world, the President Genghis II Mao IV Khan, and has access to the medicines that prevent the outbreak of the organic decay.

This has, of course, a high price: the court of the world dictator is a tangle of intrigues, the slightest mistake can become a one-way ticket to the organ bank; also, Shadrach has several sensors implanted in his body, which allow him to control the vital functions of Genghis Mao in real time.

Obsessed with personal survival, the dictator of the world, thanks to a continuous series of transplants, has exceeded ninety years old in excellent condition, and has implemented three research programs in order to guarantee him immortality.

The Talos project plans to transfer a scanned copy of Genghis Mao in a highly advanced robot, indistinguishable from the original, and immune to any physical decay.

The project Phoenix tends instead to find a way to regenerate cells, especially those in the brain, so as to ensure continuous renewal of the organism.

The third, most wicked and evil, is the project Avatar, which provides for the transfer of the personality of the dictator in a young and perfect body, which can ensure decades of good health; the chosen one for this dubious honor is Mangu, who believes he is destined to be the successor of Genghis Mao, but does not imagine that only his body will sit on the throne.

Shadrach in the Furnace is a ruthless novel about the voracity of power, as in To Live Again (1969) Silverberg speaks of the desire for immortality and how power is able to corrupt, although the figure of Shadrach can maintain a glimmer of humanity which is totally absent in the protagonists of To Live Again.

The novel is played mainly through the psychology of the characters. In addition to the main figures of Genghis Mao and his doctor, many other characters enliven the story, tragic figures such as Mangu, cynical calculators as Katya Lindman, the Talos project director, or Shadrach’s lover, Nikki Crowfoot, of the project Avatar.

We are far from the canons of hard science fiction, and Silverberg prefer to explore the interior space, and does so with a master touch, outlining a great tapestry of human characters,  if only a little too heavy in some parts.

Shadrach in the Furnace was one of the stories that the innovative Silverberg wrote in the period from 1967 to 1976. Those who love the psychological aspects more than the science/scientific element will love this novel, but I think that even the adventurous readers might enjoy the struggle Shadrach suffers to avoid the furnace.

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Indie Love Blog Hop

 hosted by b00kr3vi3w

 

Meet Author Massimo Marino

When I started writing I was too young to think of what I was doing and have moments of reflection on crafting a novel.

My Dad received “Astounding Stories” and I wasn’t allowed to read the magazines but they did have astounding covers; I dreamed about them. Based on those covers, I created stories in my mind, then put them down on paper with a pencil in my little hands so that I could re-read and never forget them.

I didn’t think in those days about plot and action, character development, building my voice, what themes and belief systems I had to, or wanted to cover. The place and the setting came from those cover pictures, and I wasn’t concerned with temporal or structural issues.

Later on, I stopped when I started my studies in Physics at the University. Between that and playing quarterback for the team of Palermo, my home town, chasing girls until I found my future wife thirty-four years ago, put a halt to writing. So it is only when I resumed that forgotten love and got the writing fever again—or my Muse awoke and found me ready—that I started exploring and thinking of  these elements in my work.

Suspense is one thing that will keep readers reading; there’s a tension in the pages and it is not resolved: The writer has been busy building suspense. A common mistake I’ve seen with writers still learning the ropes is eagerness with resolving the tension, as if it was a good thing to provide the readers with the resolution on the same page, even; what a missed opportunity. Sure, the longer you wait, the higher the risk of disappointing your readers if the resolution is moot and weak. The readers would go “What! Is that all?”

Keep in mind that suspense is your key factor to have your book defined by readers as a “page-turner”: they want to discover what resolves the tension points in your novel. If everything is in one page, there is no need to turn anything 

You will notice something very interesting that you may use as one of your mantras while honing your storyline: Where there is revelation, there is suspense.

Revelations can fall into many categories, it can be part of the plot, a trait of your main character, an anodyne, thinly disguised detail that goes undetected by most readers, and creates “Ah ha” moments later in the story.

Try thinking of all the possible revelations in your book. How do these fit into your plot outline? If you have many to share with your readers, how can they be distributed in the storyline?

Try not to amass all your revelations together and too early in the book as you need to keep up with the expectations of your readers through some 80,000 words.

Characters are revealed through their actions, what they do and what they say. Drama shows people at their extremes. Your main character must be in the midst of the battle of his or her life, physical or emotional, or an ultimate test, a challenge or crisis of faith. As they say, “If you want to find out what a person is made of, put that person under pressure.”

You’ll also will find that a place or a thing can also function as “character” and be developed. A place, or an object can be charged with emotions and tension to rival with the better developed characters of all stories. You don’t even need to describe your character physically as if you were—and you are, if you do that—telling people about a picture you have of the character. A character is not a pair of blue eyes, blonde hair, fair incarnation, slim or not, tall or short, attractive or repulsive, beautiful or ugly. These are the traits of a cardboard, not a character.

Build your character slowly, with their thoughts, their action, their unique way of interacting with the events in the story and with other characters. This gives them depth, not whether they’re tall and brunette, or short and blondie. You can even avoid telling physical characters and have the reader guess whether they are tall (she’s able to reach the upper shelve without help) or short, she needs to be on her tiptoes. Don’t even tell how they look, show who they are, and the readers will fill in the gaps. If you need a physical trait to be unique and well described (but only if it is *needed* and adds to the story) then introduce that trait *when* needed.

Everyone can describe the picture of a person and tell how s/he looks like, but that’s not character development and—frankly—doesn’t add anything to the reader’s image of who is that person. Forget physical traits, get into the characters’ personality and they will develop naturally and readers will love or hate them, but never indifferent to their fates.

Development and character—and how both are framed by time and place, and their impact on your story is also a key feature of your storytelling. It is a key aspect of your narration: where it is situated at a particular place.

When I  am deep in writing a new story,  I have places and situations and scenes that build up. I try to view them via a close up on something particular in the landscape, or via a long shot from a mountaintop or a helicopter or any other vantage point from above.  I survey the scenery, and I forbid my characters to venture there with me. I explore, trying to “feel” the place well before my characters are allowed in. Then I walk with them, and I hear their thoughts, and question “How do you feel, here?”, “What excites you?”, “What scares you?”, and “Would you go there?” Hearing them say “No” to the last question is usually a good sign that the place needs to be visited in the story 

The plot of your book  can be an attempt to illuminate a particular philosophical problem, belief, or snapshot of a world at a particular point in time. In the plot, the writer can and wants to explore underlying belief systems, whether conscious or unconscious.

Artfully understanding and using the thematic elements in your novel will result in a work that can be deep and resonant versus flat and merely 50 shades commercial. Tempting? Instead, here you aim at writing with your heart, questioning your firm foundations of your persona, and forgetting about making more sales, while concentrating on how to better disrupt something inside the reader.

If it bothers you to explore those things, it is a good sign they are good stuff to put the spotlight on in your story. But for this, you need to have the courage to write naked. You will aim at making your work even more resonant and expansive—a book that has the potential to be appreciated by many.

Voice. We’re in the habit of thinking, based on bland television and newspaper reporting, that a homogenized voice is the most objective and appropriate voice for conveying an unbiased story.  That may work well for presenting a certain type of general information to the public, but does not serve the richness and color and personal nature of authentic stories, stories that live and breath what life is really like and the gamut of human experience. For this last point, the only reflection I have to share is that your voice develops as an extension of you—the writer—as a character.

When searched for consciously and purposefully it becomes affectation. Don’t fret on finding your voice, it will develop as part of who you are and if you write naked—again! The true worth of a writer is not in his style and voice, but in the feelings and sensations that come alive in the readers.

Small Bio

I’m Italian, and because even in Italy that means everything and nothing at all, I should say, I am Sicilian. I was born in Palermo, and as it happened with countless Sicilians, I left it, back in 1986. I lived more years abroad than in my home country, and I have changed in many and different ways than my old friends there. It is always a pleasure to go back, but it is now 6 long years since my last visit. Saudade? Maybe, a little.

I lived in Switzerland, France, and the United States. I am a scientist as a background, and have spent over 17 years in fundamental research. Most of my writing are then academic stuff, and I always wonder at how much Google is able to find about everyone. I am sure one has to Google oneself so not to forget too much…

I worked for many years at CERN—an international lab for particle physics research near Geneva, Switzerland—then in the US at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. Fantastic moments and memories from those years. In 2005 I moved to the private sector, worked with Apple Inc., and then for the World Economic Forum.

I wrote since I was a kid, short stories and novellas, but never had anyone read it. It was a personal thing. Then, work and life took their toll and I stopped. Slightly over a year ago, for various reasons, I started again with some burning inside that needed to come out. On the first weekend I got over 15000 words, then subscribed to critters.org for peer review, lurked a year keeping on writing and getting feedback.

On September 2012 my debut novel, “Daimones”, saw the light. It received the 2012 PRG Reviewer’s Choice Award in Science Fiction. Last February it was awarded with the Hall of Fame – Best Science Fiction by Quality Reads UK, and received over 64% of the 1600+ readers votes. To the day, Daimones has sold over 5,000 copies and it’s Finalist at the 2014 National Indie Excellence® Awards (NIEA).

The sequel, “Once Humans”, was published in July 2013 and has sold more than 1,500 copies since. It won the 2014 Honorable Award in Science Fiction at the Readers’ Favorite International Book Awards.

The last book, Vol.3, “The Rise of the Phoenix” was published in May 2014.

The novels have been optioned by an Independent Audiobook Publisher in the US, Sci-Fi Publishing LCC, and both Daimones and Once Humans are now available as audiobooks too. (Available from audible.com,Amazon and iTunes).

1.) What’s the premise or the main idea of your books? (Give us a teaser)

You wake up one day, take your daughter to school on your way to work and realize that the peaceful countryside and neighborhood that morning is thatpeaceful because everyone is dead. A deadly, silent invasion leaves survivors befuddled, wary, and broken. The story narrates of a first contact and an Apocalypse with roots millions of years old.

2.) What’s the genre or subgenre of this books?

It’s science fiction written by a scientist. The Daimones Trilogy deals with many themes, from survival and the rebirth of the race of man after an alien apocalypse, to love and romance in a dying world, and the rise of new ethics and morals. It narrates of a first contact and an alien colonization that set the seeds for a galactic upheaval and space wars with aliens.

3.) What inspired you to write this books?

I’ve always written stories. My dad received “Astounding Stories” at home but I wasn’t allowed to read them. The covers though… those were truly astounding for a child so I invented stories. Sci-fi visions have always haunted my dreams and reveries but physics studies and professional demanding tasks put a halt into writing and reveries. In 2011 something happened and started it all over.

4.) Name some authors who have influenced your writing style

I grew up reading sci-fi, so all the big names mostly, from Isaac Asimov to Ray Bradbury, Ursula Le Guin, Frank Herbert, Larry Niven, Robert Heinlein, to name just a few and then other genres too, Tolkien, Stephen King, Tom Clancy and others. Italian authors, too, like Svevo, Calvino, Sciascia, and also Greek mythology authors, the ones I used to hate at school and that are instead fantastic writers and authors. We live with myths daily, even if we do not realize it.

5.) Tell us about an interesting character or group of characters in your novels

Dan Amenta, the main character. He’s a regular guy who finds himself thrown into otherworldly situations. He falls and stumbles, he does silly things and fears the worst but he always gets back to his feet and moves on.

Then the aliens, impenetrable, only logic and little to no feelings (they shut them down in the millennia of their evolution) but they’re complex as well. And more is revealed of their complexity in Vol.2 and Vol.3.

6.) Tell us about the world of your novels. How did you develop these settings?

I took inspiration from what I know, places, laboratories, underground hi-tech facilities, things not everyone can see in real life.

7.) What’s the most challenging part of writing these books?

Of writing the trilogy? It’s a complex plot, and it required research, planning, cross-checking facts and possible timelines, discussing with experts in technology and psychology.

8.) If there’s any interesting fact about your novels that you’d like to share to the people, please let us know.

It could happen… We are not alone

Amazon:

UK  –  USA  –  Canada  –  Australia

Audible

Enter a Rafflecopter giveaway and win “Once Humans” – Vol. 2 of the Daimones Trilogy

 

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Pixar Story Rules

From Pixar story artist Emma Coats, tweeted over the course of a month and a half. Guidelines that she learned from her more senior colleagues on how to create appealing stories. Reproduced here so that they don’t need to be searched for again

#1: You admire a character for trying more than for their successes.

#2: You gotta keep in mind what’s interesting to you as an audience, not what’s fun to do as a writer. They can be v. different.

#3: Trying for theme is important, but you won’t see what the story is actually about til you’re at the end of it. Now rewrite.

#4: Once upon a time there was ___. Every day, ___. One day ___. Because of that, ___. Because of that, ___. Until finally ___.

#5: Simplify. Focus. Combine characters. Hop over detours. You’ll feel like you’re losing valuable stuff but it sets you free.

#6: What is your character good at, comfortable with? Throw the polar opposite at them. Challenge them. How do they deal?

#7: Come up with your ending before you figure out your middle. Seriously. Endings are hard, get yours working up front.

#8: Finish your story, let go even if it’s not perfect. In an ideal world you have both, but move on. Do better next time.

#9: When you’re stuck, make a list of what WOULDN’T happen next. Lots of times the material to get you unstuck will show up.

#10: Pull apart the stories you like. What you like in them is a part of you; you’ve got to recognize it before you can use it.

#11: Putting it on paper lets you start fixing it. If it stays in your head, a perfect idea, you’ll never share it with anyone.

#12: Discount the 1st thing that comes to mind. And the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th – get the obvious out of the way. Surprise yourself.

#13: Give your characters opinions. Passive/malleable might seem likable to you as you write, but it’s poison to the audience.

#14: Why must you tell THIS story? What’s the belief burning within you that your story feeds off of? That’s the heart of it.

#15: If you were your character, in this situation, how would you feel? Honesty lends credibility to unbelievable situations.

#16: What are the stakes? Give us reason to root for the character. What happens if they don’t succeed? Stack the odds against.

#17: No work is ever wasted. If it’s not working, let go and move on – it’ll come back around to be useful later.

#18: You have to know yourself: the difference between doing your best & fussing. Story is testing, not refining.

#19: Coincidences to get characters into trouble are great; coincidences to get them out of it are cheating.

#20: Exercise: take the building blocks of a movie you dislike. How d’you rearrange them into what you DO like?

#21: You gotta identify with your situation/characters, can’t just write ‘cool’. What would make YOU act that way?

#22: What’s the essence of your story? Most economical telling of it? If you know that, you can build out from there.

 

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Authorpreneurship

TO SUCCEED these days, authors must be more businesslike than ever

The mystery is worth a book in itself. How could a hitherto unknown novel by Harper Lee, writer of “To Kill a Mockingbird”, remain hidden for 60 years, and why was it not published before? For all the swirling questions, there is one certainty. The book will become a blockbuster without Ms Lee so much as signing a copy. If only every author could be so lucky.

Standing out as a book writer today requires more than a bright idea and limpid prose. Authors need to become businesspeople as well, thinking strategically about their brand, and marketing themselves and their products. There is more competition for readers’ and reviewers’ attention, and fewer bookshops to provide a showcase for new titles. In 2013 some 1.4m print books were published in America, over five times as many as a decade earlier. Publishers are increasingly focusing their efforts on a few titles they think will make a splash, neglecting less well-known authors and less popular themes.

Many authors dream of a happy ending in which, having delivered their magnum opus, they sit back and enjoy an endless stream of royalties. But these days, writing a book is just a prologue to more work. Even the most successful writers need to invest large amounts of time and resources in promoting themselves. Authors mostly used to rely on public-relations staff provided by the publishing house. Now, wise writers hire their own publicists, whether they are unknowns just starting out in the business or stars such as J.K. Rowling of “Harry Potter” fame.

Authors must court an expanding variety of “influencers”—people whose opinions can determine a book’s success. Once a select group of newspaper reviewers were the principal arbiters of literary taste. Now, as the amount of newsprint devoted to reviews keeps shrinking, a host of bloggers and social-media pundits fill the gap. The most important are the celebrity endorsers. Oprah Winfrey used to help books soar up the charts by discussing them on her television show. More recently Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook has become an important endorser. Steven Pinker, a psychologist, enjoyed a “Zuckerberg bump” in sales of his book, “The Better Angels of Our Nature”, after the social network’s boss told his online followers he was reading it.

Prizes like the Pulitzer and Man Booker may send sales as high as a librarian’s neckline, but are notoriously hard to win. So are Hollywood film deals. Entrepreneurial authors find it more effective to devote themselves to a more achievable aim: getting onto the bestseller lists. The secret of such lists, the most prominent of which are those in the New York Times, is that they do not measure total sales, but their velocity. Books that fly off the shelves in their first week make the lists, and that in turn boosts their subsequent sales. Pre-orders of books all count toward the first week’s sales figures, so canny authors try to get people to buy copies in advance of publication. Eric Ries, a lecturer on entrepreneurship and innovation, went on a “pre-book” book tour to drum up interest before his work, “The Lean Startup”, even had a firm name, and started selling it online more than a year in advance of its publication. It worked. The book’s cover is now able to boast “the New York Times bestseller” above the title.

Ruthless authors can go even further. The Times compiles its lists by tracking sales at a few thousand shops, wholesalers and online retailers. It is not hard for writers to find out which outlets feed their numbers into the rankings; indeed, there are firms that provide such information, for a fee. Wordsmiths can then route their book tours accordingly, and encourage buyers to place orders at those shops. Another way of working the system is to release a book in a quiet period—such as this month—when there is less competition for a place on the bestseller lists.

It is easier than it used to be to get onto these lists. Last year the Times added 12 new bestseller categories, including travel, humour and spirituality. It has also expanded its main lists, to 20 books, which gives more authors a shot at making the charts. Shrewd authors have realised that “bestseller” is a relative term: in some months and some categories they can make the bottom of a list by selling merely a few thousand copies.

Authors, like other entrepreneurs, should not let failure get to them. If they fail to make a Times bestseller list, they can always try for another one, such as Amazon’s. Cheap e-books can shoot up the website’s real-time lists, which is how many self-published authors have gained attention. Their moment of glory may have lasted a mere few seconds, but no one needs to know that.

Chapter and purse

The open secret of publishing is that very few authors can live by books alone. Even some of the most successful ones make most of their money from public speaking, consulting or teaching, and use the publicity gained by their books to justify higher fees. Take Chris Anderson, an author (and former journalist at The Economist), who is paid tens of thousands of dollars for each lecture; or Alain de Botton, a writer on philosophy, whose profile brings paying customers to his School of Life. Last month Simon & Schuster, a publisher, announced it would sell online video courses led by some of its authors. Things are more difficult for fiction writers: the organisers of conferences and other events pay good speaking fees to non-fiction writers with a bit of name recognition, but not to the average novelist.

Authors are becoming more like pop stars, who used to make most of their money selling albums but who now use their recordings as promotional tools, earning a living mainly from concerts. The trouble with many budding writers is that they are not cut out for this new world. They are often introverts, preferring solitude to salesmanship. Readers these days want to get to know the creators of the books they buy. Diffident authors may feel uncomfortable with getting so close to their fans. But only the likes of Ms Lee can afford to stay mysterious.

From the print edition: Business

via Schumpeter: Authorpreneurship | The Economist.

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Firstborn – Arthur C. Clark & Stephen Baxter

An ancient race that will not share the available energy in the universe with other civilizations, and therefore is devoted to pursue the destruction of other intelligences as they become ‘competitors'; this is the premise of the great fresco by Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter dedicated to the fight of humanity against the Firstborn who first became known to science fiction fans as the builders of the iconic black monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey. The Firstborn have inhabited legendary master of science fiction Sir Arthur C. Clarke’s writing for decades.

The novel should conclude the “Time Odyssey” trilogy, picking up the threads left open in previous novels and revealing those mysteries remained unsolved.

The story opens with the awakening of Bisesa Dutt, brave British soldier and heroine of the two previous episodes, from a cryogenic sleep that lasted 19 years. Her daughter Myra awakes her, driven by an emergency situation: an alien probe had been detected in the deep space and is headed toward Earth, and now identified as a quantum bomb able to obliterate an entire planet.

Together with the young astronaut Alexei Carel, the two women fled from Earth through a space elevator, directed to Mars, where an Eye of the Firstborn had been found, preserved by the ancients and now disappeared Martians.

But this is only the first part of the long journey of Bisesa, who finds herself on Mir, the planet built by taking countless splinters time of Earth ages by the Firstborn, and where the young astronomer Abdikadir awaits.

In Babylon, the capital of the empire that Alexander the Great, (yes, THE Alexander the Great) intends to extend over the entire planet, a surprising news awaits Bisesa: in this pocket universe, Mars is blue and inhabited.

This and the discovery of the Eye allow to understand that in the past the mysterious Firstborn have already caused the extinction of an intelligent race in the solar system, the unfortunate Martians have not managed to avoid being swept away. Perhaps, now, the same fate awaits the human breed: it is the time of the end. More than science fiction, the story is full of Fantasy, with technology (and its descriptions) that clashes with science, so much so that I doubt Clarke, who lived through his last days, had the time to really work on this novel.

Spoiler alert: I’ll talk about details of the plot and the ending of the story, so if you are willing to read the novel, you should end now reading this review.

One would expect, from the third volume of a trilogy, some sort of conclusion, pleasant, surprising or predictable and disappointing as it will be, but a conclusion. It is not the case here.

What the novel does is to replicate situations seen in the first two volumes, the Earth is under attack and the situation of fantasy world of Mir, but does not give any answer to the open questions, on the contrary, it adds new ones and prepare the turf for a… quadrilogy?

The end of the novel sees the Q bomb destroy Mars, the Mars of our universe, sacrificed to save the Earth; Myra remains on the planet during the collapse, but somehow she does not die. She meets with Bisesa in an unknown place.

Daughter and mother were transported there by the Lastborn, beings of which we know nothing, just that they are at war with the Firstborn.

It goes without saying that the trilogy is transformed into a de facto quartet … at a minimum, but why limit yourself? Lastborn enter the stage as a Deus Ex Machina and voilà, nothing really ends and at least three other novels can now see the light.

But there is a much bigger problem that the prolongation, the stretching of the series: the gradual loss of interest for the story. The first novel was by a great idea, the second had been a passable catastrophic novel, while the latter — or rather penultimate chapter? — a total disappointment.

Paradoxically, it has been more credible the building of a miniuniverso containing a planet assembled with thousands of “splinters time” from Earth, the planet Mir seen in the first novel, than the actual solar system where the action takes place in Firstborn. Only a few decades have passed after a disaster that swept away a billion people and caused enormous destructions; one would expect to find humanity intent to lick their wounds, prepare a comeback, and not committed to blindly colonize the space, build huge telescopes in Antarctica, and spending time and resources to recreate extinct species.

Another questionable detail, because of the deployment of forces and the sentinels placed up to the orbit of Saturn, why the Firstborn are so kind to send their herald of death, the Q bomb, along the ecliptic rather than let it arrive unexpected following a different route? Burglars don’t announce themselves at the gate, walk straight to the main door of the mansion, and ring the bell.

The real critical point of the novel is not, however, its illogic fabric, rather the weary drag of the story, which has never tense moments and is lost in long descriptions of technological marvels and parts that taste like magic and stick to the walls with spit, just to fill a few pages, (example, see chapter 25.) With a full universe with alien species, the action is virtually absent, the protagonists spend most of their time traveling from place to place for inscrutable reasons. The Q bomb is a lingering plot gimmick, disturbing, and the murder attempt of Alexander the Great gives no emotion.

Some points of interest: the novel tries to please those interested in future technologies, and they will find many examples, from space elevators to solar sailing ships, all based on the latest available studies, but — again — they seem to be there just to add pages to a thin story.

It reads like badly written novel by a copycat writer of Arthur C. Clarke who only got the message “I need to write long technology descriptions, crazy, disruptive, wild, and I’m done.” I can only think that Clarke’s declining health has prevented him from giving his contribution (a few months after the publication the great writer left us), and that its decline coincided with that of this series.

To emphasize that the novel is a work of only Baxter I proceeded to clear the name of Clarke from the spine of the book. With a black marker.

Massimo Marino is a scientist envisioning science fiction. He spent years at CERN and The Lawrence Berkeley Lab followed by lead positions with Apple, Inc. and the World Economic Forum. He is also co-founder of “Squares on Blue”, a Big Data Analytics service company.
Massimo currently lives in France and crosses the border with Switzerland multiple times daily, although he is no smuggler.

As a scientist writing science fiction, he went from smashing particles at accelerators at SLAC and CERN to smashing words on a computer screen.

He’s the author of multi-awarded Daimones Trilogy.

His novels have received the Seal of Excellency from both AwesomeIndies.net and IndiePENdents.org

• 2012 PRG Reviewer’s Choice Award Winner in Science Fiction

• 2013 Hall of Fame – Best in Science Fiction, Quality Reads UK Book Club
• 2013 PRG Reviewer’s Choice Award Winner in Science Fiction Series
• 2014 Finalist – Science Fiction – Indie Excellence Awards L.A.
• 2014 Award Winner – Science Fiction Honorable Mention – Readers’ Favorite Annual Awards

His novels are available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble (Nook), iTunes Apple Store, and many other retailers around the world.

Join his mailing list for new releases, or follow him on Facebook, Google+, and Twitter.

 

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Reviews and Critiques

When we finish writing a piece, how do we critique it?

I’ve already written about how difficult it is to review a book from readers’ perspective, but reviewing and providing meaningful feedback requires skills that even ‘reviewers’ do lack. Those are skills that develop with experience accumulated in creative writing courses, or peer-review groups. It takes dedication and a genuine desire to help the writer, or writer-to-be.

Some writers tend to self-critique, and they start right after “The End” is written. Even a few days wait are not enough, though. If we have just finished our story, we are far too close to be objective. I’ve never understood why writing, which was brilliant when I put it, for so to say, in the drawer, becomes so flawed when I look at it a month later. Are there demons inside changing my pristine prose into blathering? Could they be viruses affecting every computer of every writer in the world?

Giving your story to friends and family isn’t any good. Either they will love it not to hurt you, or hate it to hurt you. There may be an exception if a family member or friend is a professional editor or another fellow writer. Most of us aren’t lucky enough to have one of those. Also, family members are forever thinking your characters are really them, or resent that you’ve used other family members instead of them to build your characters.

Sometimes there are writing circles or groups. Their success depends on how good the critiquing is. If members are out to prove how bad everyone else but themselves is, then you won’t get the help you want and need. If members can’t articulate why something is good or bad, it may offer you some help in identifying that there is a problem, but not what the problem is. Comments like “that comma should be a semicolon” certainly don’t go deep enough when you want to know if Dan was believable when he changed his mind or did you need more foreshadowing.

Time ago, I came across a helpful grid. The original was developed by English writer Alex Keegan (author of the Caz Flood mystery novels and originator of a writers’ boot camp that was a hard-driving self-help group). A later incarnation of the grid, is the one presented below.

Although all critiquing is subjective, going through the list helps focus anyone who is critiquing another’s piece of work. The grid might help to show us what to look for. It can be a tool you can give to people when you want them to evaluate your work with more feedback than saying “I liked it,” or “I didn’t like it.” It also allows them to be a bit more objective in their criticism.

Learning to critique another’s work helps you learn how to critique your own, although to some extent you will always be too close.

The Critique Grid
DIRECTIONS

Add up all the points. It is interesting to see how several people score the same story.
Max Score 230
160+ is a good score
108 is average

OPENING

Superlative opening to a first class story 25
Original and inventive – attention catching 20
Intriguing start 10
Room for improvement – not best feature 5
Slow-pace for short story – picked up later 0
Flat, lacked pace and punch -5
Needed re-writing, an early letdown -10

TITLE

Suited the story 10
Needs improvement 5
Try again 0

PLOT/THEME

Strongest part of the story – Memorable 30
Confidently handled – an assured touch 25
Demanded and deserved full attention 20
Original but not totally convincing 18
A familiar situation but well handled 15
This scenario has been overdone 12
A touch superficial for the effort involved 10
Strained credulity 5
Neither important nor entertaining 0

ACTION AND PACE

Effortless and well constructed 25
Good control and well edited by the author 20
Deteriorated after a promising start 15
A re-write might improve the flow 10
Struggled for control 5
Too involved for a short story 0
Too many unanswered questions -5
Anecdotal – Lacked a good narrative -10

CHARACTERS

Strong, confidently drawn and believable 25
Easy people to understand and to recognise 20
A mixture – some good, some sketchy 15
Main character fine – lesser personnel flat 10
Stock types, one dimensional 5
Hard to believe these people could exist 0
Much more work needed on characterisation -5

ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT

A joy to read – Brilliant 40
Quality writing throughout 35
A page turner – as the Bookseller would say 25
Good, but slightly run of the mill 20
Some merit – competently told 15
Might appeal to a minority 10
Difficult to recommend 5
No merit 0

DIALOGUE (if applicable)

Vivid and crisp, in period, idiom and character 25
Story well told in the words of the character 20
Good, with one or two crisp exchanges 15
Good, with one or two crisp exchanges 10
More variety would have helped 5
The idiom failed to match the theme 0
Weakest point in the story -5

LANGUAGE

Effortless style, sensitive feeling for words 30
Smooth and easy to read 25
Flashes of originality gave it extra sparkle 20
Stylish but parts could be polished 18
Fluent without being striking 16
Good command – lacked memorable phrases 15
Good story slightly let down in the telling 10
Little feeling for words 0

ENDING

Totally apt 25
Room for improvement 15

Massimo Marino is a scientist envisioning science fiction. He spent years at CERN and The Lawrence Berkeley Lab followed by lead positions with Apple, Inc. and the World Economic Forum. He is also co-founder of “Squares on Blue”, a Big Data Analytics service company.
Massimo currently lives in France and crosses the border with Switzerland multiple times daily, although he is no smuggler.

As a scientist writing science fiction, he went from smashing particles at accelerators at SLAC and CERN to smashing words on a computer screen.

He’s the author of multi-awarded Daimones Trilogy.

His novels have received the Seal of Excellency from both AwesomeIndies.net and IndiePENdents.org

• 2012 PRG Reviewer’s Choice Award Winner in Science Fiction

• 2013 Hall of Fame – Best in Science Fiction, Quality Reads UK Book Club
• 2013 PRG Reviewer’s Choice Award Winner in Science Fiction Series
• 2014 Finalist – Science Fiction – Indie Excellence Awards L.A.
• 2014 Award Winner – Science Fiction Honorable Mention – Readers’ Favorite Annual Awards

His novels are available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble (Nook), iTunes Apple Store, and many other retailers around the world.

Join his mailing list for new releases, or follow him on Facebook, Google+, and Twitter.

 

The post Reviews and Critiques appeared first on § Author Massimo Marino.

Imperial Earth – Arthur C. Clarke

In Imperial Earth the solar system is a busy place, colonies of satellites and planets are connected by large starships, huge structures arise in the asteroid belt, the scientific and social progress has made obsolete concepts such as racism and sexism. This is the vision from Arthur C. Clarke, who with Imperial Earth gives us an optimistic representation of our future.

Malcolm Makenzie is one of those rare people that can change the course of history: with tenacity and perseverance he has managed to create a colony on Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, and to make it rich and prosperous. The wilderness of the great moon hides huge reserves of hydrogen, enough to satiate for centuries the voracious fusion engines that drive the large interplanetary spaceships.

Although cosmic radiation have damaged his chromosomes, making it impossible to have children, Malcolm has circumvented the obstacle resorting to cloning, and his son Colin has repeated the operation originating Duncan.

Now the newest member of the family has the right age to create a new clone, so as to continue the dynasty, when an unexpected invitation arrives timely like cheese on macaroni.

On the occasion of the five hundredth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, it is indeed the year 2276, a representative of Titan is invited by the president of the Committee for the celebration, George Washington (no relation to the original), to participate in ceremonies scheduled for the big event.

In addition to the payment of travel expenses and a good reason to go to Earth without explanation, the invitation offers another good opportunity, Duncan will make the trip on a spaceship with the newest asymptotic propulsion, and will study it closely.

This latest edge technology uses a microscopic singularity to generate thrust, consuming a very small amount of hydrogen, and that puts at risk the prosperity of Titan.

The problems that the young man will face are not few. As soon as he gets to destination he discovers that Karl Helmer, once his friend and later rival, has abandoned his research on Mnemosyne, a small, distant moon of Saturn, and is now on Earth with a mysterious purpose, and maybe with a dirty business at hand.

What is certain is that Duncan will return to Titan changed a lot from his visit to the birthplace of man.

Clarke gave us countless versions of the colonization of the solar system, always written with particular attention to the likelihood technology, often combined with exciting plots, twists, bailouts and dramatic battles.

Imperial Earth only offers some plausible technology, moments of tension are few, indeed only one, while there are various long descriptions of new technologies. But it feels outdated today.

The lion’s share, however, is from a mathematical-logic game invented by Solomon Golomb in 1953, quoted extensively from Clarke, who in the afterword confesses that he was addicted to this mathematics drug.

The English author let us glimpse a humanity that, after a dark era of unrest, has achieved a balance never seen before: the Earth is populated by little more than half a billion people, less than those living elsewhere, in space. A society caring for ecology, where skin color or sexual orientation are of no particular importance.

Maybe it is for the too much optimism, for the too many — sometimes weak — technology descriptions, or for the lack of real action, but this novel is perhaps the least convincing among those written by Clarke, who boasts literally dozens of the most interesting works in science fiction.

One could not say that Imperial Earth is a bad novel, but in comparison to many others from the same author, this novel is the the ugly duckling of the flock. Add to this that Clarke has never excelled in the description of the characters, and that some details are outdated,  we have a work here that can have interest for fans of long technology descriptions and fans of Clarke, but for all others I fear it bears little interest.

Massimo Marino is a scientist envisioning science fiction. He spent years at CERN and The Lawrence Berkeley Lab followed by lead positions with Apple, Inc. and the World Economic Forum. He is also co-founder of “Squares on Blue”, a Big Data Analytics service company.
Massimo currently lives in France and crosses the border with Switzerland multiple times daily, although he is no smuggler.

As a scientist writing science fiction, he went from smashing particles at accelerators at SLAC and CERN to smashing words on a computer screen.

He’s the author of multi-awarded Daimones Trilogy.

His novels have received the Seal of Excellency from both AwesomeIndies.net and IndiePENdents.org

• 2012 PRG Reviewer’s Choice Award Winner in Science Fiction

• 2013 Hall of Fame – Best in Science Fiction, Quality Reads UK Book Club
• 2013 PRG Reviewer’s Choice Award Winner in Science Fiction Series
• 2014 Finalist – Science Fiction – Indie Excellence Awards L.A.
• 2014 Award Winner – Science Fiction Honorable Mention – Readers’ Favorite Annual Awards

His novels are available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble (Nook), iTunes Apple Store, and many other retailers around the world.

Join his mailing list for new releases, or follow him on Facebook, Google+, and Twitter.

 

The post Imperial Earth – Arthur C. Clarke appeared first on § Author Massimo Marino.

Astounding Stories – John Wood Campbell Jr.

Science fiction as we know it today is the result of the work of many people, authors, publishers, directors, editors, designers, enthusiasts and casual readers; everyone has made a contribution, even if only a small drop, into this majestic river.

Only a few, however, have managed to change the course, among them we can definitely count John Wood Campbell, Jr., a physicist, famous pulp fiction writer, and then editor of Astounding Science Fiction magazine, (later called Analog Science Fiction and Fact) which gave birth to the ‘Golden Age’ and ruled the fiction field for at least a decade.

Campbell was the catalyst that allowed a new generation of writers to emerge, while already established writers changed the tone of their works, developing and adapting to the new times.

The new course of science fiction, however, made several victims, and one of the authors whose career came to an end was the same Campbell, who left the typewriter to devote himself fully to the direction of Astounding.

Yet, during the fruitful and bubbling years before the Golden Age, Campbell was considered a writer of the first rang, on a par with more established authors of space opera as EE “Doc” Smith, Edmond Hamilton, and Jack Williamson.

The three stories presented here contributed to the reputation of Campbell as a writer.

When The Atoms Failed (1930)

When the observatory of Mount Wilson discovers that twenty huge spaceships are heading towards Earth panic grips all hearts. The intentions of the visitors from Mars do not seem friendly, and no one knows what destructive potential is available to their ships.

The invaders land in the desert of Navada, eliminate reconnaissance aviation, and head up to San Francisco, which is completely destroyed: it seems that nothing can save humanity from defeat.

But Earth has an ace up its sleeve, a single ship, built according to the revolutionary discoveries of scientist Steve Warerson, addresses the Martian forces in a duel in which the stakes are the highest: the ultimate. fate of two worlds.

Will Warerson and his brave crew defeat the invaders, or will humanity fall into slavery?

Beyond the end of space (1933)

An innovative scientific experiment destroys a university laboratory and causes a victim. Professor Ran Warren is expelled from the university.

Warren does not give in, he knows that his studies might open the door to an immense source of energy. With a friend, he founds a company to develop the potential of its discovery.

Enters Thaddeus Nestor, a ruthless business that has maneuvered to dismiss Warren so to be able to exploit his research. His plan fails, so Nestor hires an unscrupulous character, James Atkill, to steal the discoveries made by Warren.

After several failed attempts, Nestor manages to get his hands on the patents filed by Warren and starts to build a fleet of ships with the intention to use them in order to surge to power and global control.

The plans of domination of the greedy businessman will have to overcome an obstacle: also Warren was able to build his own spaceship, the Prometheus, which will face the ten Nestor’s in an unequal duel.

But an unexpected help, and the ingenuity of the scientist, seems to be able to overturn the odds of what seems like a hopeless battle.

Uncertainty (1936)

The solar system has been completely colonized: planets, satellites, and asteroids are home to more or less numerous colonies, scientific laboratories, and military bases of the cruisers of the Interplanetary Patrol.

Pirates are a problem, but the one met by Buck Kendall, commander of one of the ships responsible for monitoring the routes for Pluto, is something far more deadly than a pirate ship, only he and his friend Cole Rad survive the “first contact “with an alien species.

Kendall believes that those who wiped his crew will return to subjugate the entire solar system. He saw the enemy ship leaving for outer space at beyond the speed of light, and is aware that for the first time humanity is confronted with an intelligent breed, hostile, and most scientifically advanced.

Having convinced the Commander of the Interplanetary Patrol to give him carte blanche, Kendall began adopting countermeasures. Studies and preparations are conducted rapidly, and when the threatening alien fleet appears at the solar system’s boundaries, humanity is ready to fight for their freedom.

-0-

A long time ago I was moved by reading the adventures of the Jovian Aarn Munro. The magic of the past has not returned with these stories, but the jury is still positive.

The first novel has all the flaws of the first science fiction movies. Campbell tells the same story told by HG Wells in The War of the Worlds, but resolves the situation with the sound of weapons, without resorting to the bacteria. Ultimately, it is an old story that has little if anything memorable.

More complex and interesting is the second novel, where the enemy is human and the strange contrast between a very advanced civilization and gangsters — Roaring Twenties style — is a source of interest.

The story told in the alien attack of Uncertainty is detailed and complex, Campbell also uses a narrative technique that shows us the views of the residents of Mira Ceti, and the reasons for the invasion.

A good novel, with great scenes and a constant high voltage, perhaps the best of the works of ‘superscience’ signed by Campbell.

The traits shared by the three novels are amazing inventions (in today’s view even unrealistic) and the presence of a brave scientist, a rich or rich friends, which brings into play all his resources for a noble and heroic purpose.

What I was a bit surprised of is the way aliens are presented. Firm believer in human superiority, Campbell concludes the first novel with a peace treaty followed by a fruitful collaboration, while in the history with the last Cetani, forced to conquer new worlds for survival, aliens are outlined in order to make them sympathetic.

Eventually the more evil and despicable enemy of the three novels is Nestor, a human driven by ambition and thirst for power, a real, mercilessly monster.

Considering the plots and characterization, both cut with a hatchet, shared by the three novels, it is clear that Campbell was interested in telling the story, bending everything, even the scientific accuracy, to the needs narrative, and will make more than one modern reader smile, unable to sustain the suspension of disbelief.

The characters, though, are complex and sometimes surprising.

Campbell, as a writer, had a short career, divided between superscience (or pseudoscience with today’s knowledge) stories, more complex stories as The Moon is hell! (1950) and poetic stories like Twilight (1934). Today he is better known for Who goes there? (1938), a novel repeatedly brought to the big screen.

Just when it seemed to enter an even more fruitful writing phase, Campbell buried the typewriter to devote himself to a new career, editor of his venerated science fiction magazine. Often, his ideas nurtured a large group of writers who would become famous and which would have ferried, for better or for worse, science fiction to the years of the space race.

Stories coming from a period now far far away, venerable but that fail to bring the same old thrill.

Massimo Marino is a scientist envisioning science fiction. He spent years at CERN and The Lawrence Berkeley Lab followed by lead positions with Apple, Inc. and the World Economic Forum. He is also co-founder of “Squares on Blue”, a Big Data Analytics service company.
Massimo currently lives in France and crosses the border with Switzerland multiple times daily, although he is no smuggler.

As a scientist writing science fiction, he went from smashing particles at accelerators at SLAC and CERN to smashing words on a computer screen.

He’s the author of multi-awarded Daimones Trilogy.

His novels have received the Seal of Excellency from both AwesomeIndies.net and IndiePENdents.org

• 2012 PRG Reviewer’s Choice Award Winner in Science Fiction

• 2013 Hall of Fame – Best in Science Fiction, Quality Reads UK Book Club
• 2013 PRG Reviewer’s Choice Award Winner in Science Fiction Series
• 2014 Finalist – Science Fiction – Indie Excellence Awards L.A.
• 2014 Award Winner – Science Fiction Honorable Mention – Readers’ Favorite Annual Awards

His novels are available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble (Nook), iTunes Apple Store, and many other retailers around the world.

Join his mailing list for new releases, or follow him on Facebook, Google+, and Twitter.

 

The post Astounding Stories – John Wood Campbell Jr. appeared first on § Author Massimo Marino.

Pebble in the Sky – Isaac Asimov

Sometimes life is hard for the protagonists of science fiction novels: you can be thrown out of your space-time, and end up in another place and/or in other times. When all else fails, you land into other dimensions.

You don’t know what lies ahead once there, the rare pleasant surprises, easier to be greeted by green men with four arms, or being immersed in an obscure fog.

This time, the bad experience happens to Joseph Schwarz, a retired tailor: a single step transports him into a world far removed in time from the Chicago of 1949.

Apparently, Schwarz can be considered lucky, it is true that he is in an unknown environment, where people speak a language incomprehensible to him, but at least they are men and do not seem hostile.

Regarded as a mentally handicapped, Schwarz is greeted by a couple of farmers and later brought into the city to a certain Professor Shekt, a distinguished scientist who works on an experimental treatment that can enhance mental ability.

The old tailor’s encounters Shekt’s beautiful daughter, Pola, but he he discovers to be under the control of the Company of Elders, a group of fanatics who are enormously influential and who are weaving a dangerous intrigue.

Schwarz began to learn the local language, and slowly realizes that he has ended in a remote future, and not at all reassuring: the Earth is part of a huge galactic empire, but is considered an insignificant planet full of hot heads, also Earth is highly radioactive.

The scarcity of resources forces the inhabitants to a hard and ruthless life; with horror Schwarz comes to know that once you get to sixty years you become subject to euthanasia, and he is already beyond that limit.

The elderly tailor decides to escape, but has no friend to rely on, only his mental capacity, that now grows to the point that he can get in telepathic contact with others and even kill at a distance. He meets again with Pola and Bel Ardavan, an imperial archaeologist who studies the history of the Earth.

This strange trio face a threat of unimaginable scale, and that can shake or even topple the mighty empire of Trantor.

Pebble in the Sky is the last of a trilogy of novels (known as the Galactic Empire) which form the prelude to the Foundation Trilogy, the other stories are “The Stars, Like Dust” (1951) and “Currents of Space” (1952).

In the first two novels, the two hundred million colonized worlds are fragmented and divided, although in Currents of Space the imperial ambitions of Trantor are now evident, while the story of Pebble in the Sky are set after nine centuries since the founding of the galactic empire and the establishment of the Pax Trantoriana.

Following Isaac Asimov, his Universe expands and connects with its different cycles; the three novels mentioned will become the link between the stories into those of the Foundation.

Pebble in the Sky deals with several classic themes of science fiction such as time travel and telepathy, but on all dominates the nuclear nightmare: Asimov has a radioactive Earth, and to survive it maintains a strict control over the population.

Although the same Asimov gives a different explanation to the terrestrial radioactivity, this novel fits fully in the wealth of stories born out of the fear of a global nuclear war, but this topic is added only to support the marginalization of the planet Earth in the galaxy.

If the events of Trantor were to be modeled on those of the Roman Empire (Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire is the work of Edward Gibbon who inspired Asimov) then this planet is the counterpart of the ancient Judea, a land considered jumble of hotheads and fanatics, and regarded with contempt by the Romans.

The prosecutor Ennius takes the part of Pontius Pilate, the priests are members of the Society of the Ancients, inspired not from the Bible but from the Book of the Ancients, where it is written that the land is of the chosen people, the inhabitants of the planet that gave rise to the humanity in the novel.

Strong in their faith, and in spite of the disproportion between the forces in the field, the Earthlings prepare the revolt, willing to wipe out billions of people just to take the lead of the galaxy.

On this background grand place, the events of Schwartz, Pola and Ardavan, characters who reject the logic of power and win the cultural pressures, overcoming taboos of the 60 age limit, and love between terrestrials and imperials.

Despite the tragedy that dominates the novel, Asimov seems to tell us that the man embodies enough love and passion to overcome hatred and distrust, a strong message valid even today, in a period once again dominated by uncertainty and fears.

Massimo Marino is a scientist envisioning science fiction. He spent years at CERN and The Lawrence Berkeley Lab followed by lead positions with Apple, Inc. and the World Economic Forum. He is also co-founder of “Squares on Blue”, a Big Data Analytics service company.
Massimo currently lives in France and crosses the border with Switzerland multiple times daily, although he is no smuggler.

As a scientist writing science fiction, he went from smashing particles at accelerators at SLAC and CERN to smashing words on a computer screen.

He’s the author of multi-awarded Daimones Trilogy.

His novels have received the Seal of Excellency from both AwesomeIndies.net and IndiePENdents.org

• 2012 PRG Reviewer’s Choice Award Winner in Science Fiction

• 2013 Hall of Fame – Best in Science Fiction, Quality Reads UK Book Club
• 2013 PRG Reviewer’s Choice Award Winner in Science Fiction Series
• 2014 Finalist – Science Fiction – Indie Excellence Awards L.A.
• 2014 Award Winner – Science Fiction Honorable Mention – Readers’ Favorite Annual Awards

His novels are available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble (Nook), iTunes Apple Store, and many other retailers around the world.

Join his mailing list for new releases, or follow him on Facebook, Google+, and Twitter.

 

The post Pebble in the Sky – Isaac Asimov appeared first on § Author Massimo Marino.

Getting Personal … with Author Raymond Bolton

Today we welcome Author Raymond Bolton. Raymond divides his time between Santa Fe, New Mexico and Portland, Oregon. Prior to being published, he won several awards for his work. Most recently, under its working title, Renunciation, Awakening was a finalist in the Pacific Northwest Writers Association’s 2013 literary competition from among hundreds of entries from the US, the UK, Canada, Europe and Australia. It also won writerstype.com’s June 2013 First Chapter competition. From April 2011, until it was disbanded in December 2012, Raymond was an invited, featured contributor for the writers’ blog, Black Ink, White Paper, http://blackinkwhitepaper.wordpress.com/

 Raymond’s appearance on a  TV interview

Hello, Raymond, thanks for your time with us at “Getting Personal …” Authors’ interviews. Would you share with us all how we met and connected? 

With pleasure. I met with you [Massimo Marino] as part of the Facebook Group, Fantasy Sci-fi Network, #FSFN. Since then, we have corresponded through FB. Earlier this year, I had the pleasure of interviewing you on my website:

http://www.raymondbolton.com/the-write-stuff-monday-may-19-interview-with-author-massimo-marino/

How do you feel about being interviewed?

I am enjoying it. It is a nice way for me to evaluate how far I have come in my literary career. Without any sort of evaluation, it is impossible to move forward in any meaningful way.

In the picture above, you hold a copy of your most recent release, Awakening (The Ydron Saga) (Volume 1). What can you tell us about this novel?

Under its working title, Renunciation, Awakening – The Ydron Saga was one of eight finalists among 950 entries from the U.S., the U.K., Canada, Europe and Australia in the Pacific Northwest Writers Associations 2013 Literary Contest. Hailed on BookViral.com http://bit. .ly/1nnIlAy as “a grand debut. An ambitious and well considered SF crossover… [that] breathes originality into the genre”, Awakening has received mostly five star reviews on both Amazon and Goodreads.

Congratulations for being so well received by readers. What if you had only 30 seconds to describe the story?

All right. So… how does a world equipped with bows, arrows and catapults, where steam power is just beginning to replace horses and sailing ships, avert conquest from beyond the stars? Prince Regilius has been engineered to combat the Dalthin, a predatory alien species that enslaves worlds telepathically, and to do so he must unite his people. But when his mother murders his father, the land descends into chaos and his task may prove impossible. Faced with slaying the one who gave him life in order to protect his world, he seeks a better way. Set in a vast and varied land where telepaths and those with unusual mental abilities tip the course of events, Awakening goes to the heart of family, friendship and betrayal.

Family, friendship, and betrayal. Certainly you have chosen universal themes with Awakening. What else do you have coming out?

I am pleased to announce that Thought Gazer, the second volume of The Ydron Saga, the first book of Awakening’s prequel trilogy, is being released on January 1, 2015. It is already available for pre-order through the Kindle Store, Thought Gazer (The Ydron Saga) (Volume 2). Like Awakening, as of its release date, it will also be available in print through Amazon, as well as through IngramSpark, if you prefer to purchase your books through your local brick-and-mortar bookstore.

Although you’ve received mainly good, positive reviews for your work, how do you, or would you react to a bad review of one of your books?

I take bad reviews in stride, realizing they are inevitable. Every author gets panned, from Steinbeck to Tolkien, from Hesse to Faulkner. Bad reviews show that my book has moved out of my immediate circle of friends into the world at large, so I’m happy to fall in with my literary predecessors.

Very well said, and true words. What is the single most powerful challenge when it comes to writing a novel?

Remaining true to oneself. The minute a writer starts thinking about potential sales is the time the writing begins to suffer.

I fully agree. I once said that writers should write naked, that is true to oneself without layers and masks. Do you research your novels?

The two thrillers I’ve written, yes. My fantasy novels, clearly not.

And yet, there might be research to conduct for Fantasy as well. After all, all stories need to be plausible and feel realistic even when magical  How much impact does your childhood have on your writing?

My childhood impacts my life and my life impacts my writing. When I was a child, I was very insecure and very afraid. Mostly of people, but also of failing. Consequently, I failed a lot. Since then, I have learned to believe in myself. I live by the Ashanti proverb, “Act as if you cannot fail.” As a result, I fail very seldom. Whenever I do, because I have observed from experience that no failure—however painful—will kill me, I learn from every stumble and move forward. That has allowed me to benefit from whatever rejections or pans my writing ever earned. Over the years, that ability helped me listen to the critiques, many of which had merit, and hone my craft to a level that earns more praise than criticism. Even now, I listen to my critics and draw from their observations.

Do you admire your own work?

Eventually. When I finished Thought Gazer in 2010, it was receiving a great deal of praise from agents and editors. One editor told me, had he gotten around to reading the manuscript six months earlier, he would have taken me on. By that time, however, his publishing house had moved away from fantasy. Earlier this year, I was working on Foreteller, the second volume of the trilogy. Since much of it depends on events in Thought Gazer, most of which I had forgotten, I set Foreteller aside and returned to the earlier book. It was atrocious! I am so glad it didn’t get published. Now, after several rewrites and edits, after two passes by beta readers and taking into account b their praises and criticisms, I think it reads rather well. Awakening went through an even more stringent developmental process.

Are you jealous of other writers?

No. They are who they are. I am myself. If anything, their successes encourage me.

Especially in the Indie world. The more Indie writers are successful, the more the readers will give them a chance as a whole new, worthwhile category of storytellers. Do you think what you do matters?

The fact that readers take time to tell me how much they’ve enjoyed what I’ve written tells me I’ve done something special. I’ve given them pleasure and enjoyment and diversion from the cares that intrude upon their lives, if only for a few hours. How many can say that much?

Looking at the numbers and ranks of all the books in Amazon alone, I’d say a small percentage, thus having readers who became later fans is a great accomplishment. Thank you Raymond for being with us, but it is now to turn the questions around and Get Personal! 

Have you ever been in trouble with the police?

I fell in with a bad lot in college and I’m grateful my first and only arrest was for something truly petty. One night in a drunk tank was enough to make me realize I never wanted to repeat it.

Well, take it this way, it was good learning for the future writer. So, when were you last involved in a real-life punch-up?

The only “punch-up” I’ve been involved in since elementary school was when my wife’s PTSD Viet Nam vet husband assaulted me in my own home. I didn’t know I had it in me, but I gave him a black eye and drove him out of the house. That’s another thing I don’t want to repeat.

Impressive. Looks like you live or lived an interesting life. If you were going to commit the perfect murder, how would you go about it?

Ah! Now we get into it. One way to conceal a body is to dig a VERY deep hole with a backhoe. After lining the bottom with quick lime, drop the body in and cover it with more. To reduce the possibility of an aerial heat signature, cover the body with a layer of cement before refilling the hole with dirt. To avoid the issue of what to do with the leftover dirt, leave it in place, dig two more holes—one to either side—and deposit their dirt on the mound in the middle. Immediately thereafter, drive into town, stop by your local nursery and put two fair-sized trees into the back of your pickup truck. Yes. I have one. When/if the local authorities stop by to ask questions, you have the perfect explanation for both the digging and the dirt. Furthermore, who’s going to look under a pile of dirt to see if there’s another hole hiding under it?

It’s so much fun being a writer. I use something similar, but grander, in a thriller I’m debating whether to publish.

I have to admit it, the description seemed so much taken from real life that I was about to ask when was the last time you dug around  Are you fun to go on vacation with?

I’ll answer this the next time I go on one. I used to travel frequently, but it has been six long years since my last hiatus. I will say, I don’t carry any of my day-to-day crap with me when I do have the chance.

Have you ever found true love?

Yes. I’m married to a woman who loves me and cares about me in ways no one else ever has. What’s more, I love her in ways I’ve cared for no other. For the first time in my life, I am at peace. I am contented. Not all of the initial passion has faded. We still enjoy spending time with one another. We embrace. We kiss. No only in private, but often in the open and spontaneously. I think we embarrass the kids at the supermarket.

That’s marvelous, Raymond, happy for you both. I’m blessed with the same kind of marriage, and no matter what could happen in my life, I consider myself a most fortunate man. Then, I have to ask you, what makes you cry?

Seeing animals or children hurt. I grieve at how their innocence was violated. Then, I get angry, knowing their tormentors will never see the justice they deserve.

I hear you. What makes you laugh?

Almost everything. Life is good. Every day this side of the grass is good. As André Gide once said, “Know that joy is rarer, more difficult and more beautiful than sadness. Once you make this all-important discovery, you must embrace joy as a moral obligation.”

These are beautiful words and a great message to conclude our chat. Thank you Raymond, much appreciated.

Folks, for more information and contact information go to:

http://www.raymondbolton.com, or email him at author@raymondbolton.com.

Links:

Raymond’s Amazon Author’s Page

Click on the covers for Raymond’s novels:

    

Facebook,  Twitter, Goodreads, Raymond’s Website.

 

 

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