Ian Lewis's Blog: Ian Lewis Fiction, page 2
April 7, 2018
New release! Part 1: No spoilers
I'm excited to announce the release of my latest novel, And I Will Lead the Revolt. This is the second and final installment in the Split series, which features a quasi-dystopian alternate history where the recession of 2008 precedes the collapse of the U.S. government. However, that's not the interesting part; that's simply the backdrop.
The meat and potatoes are the characters who are stuck in this world where the republic has split into two separate governments: the Directorate in the East and the Unites States Valiant in the West. The interconnection of their stories, their struggles and strife in spite of their environment, is what makes this so interesting.
I'll admit this series is quite different than the rest of my books. It's written with more of a mass-market style, but I tried to retain a vestige of legitimacy in a world of generic thriller drivel. I want you to care about the characters, which is why I spent much of the previous book (Godspeed, Carry My Bullet) character-building.
The series itself is also somewhat of an allegory, so while I took pains to reflect accuracy with respect to weapons, locations, climate, mechanics, and even in one case a Native American ritual, I ignored a lot or otherwise took liberties. For example, there isn't any consideration given to what's going on outside of the United States, no commentary on international relations at all. Or in other cases, I put characters into scenarios where they might not get much further than two steps without the coaxing hand of the author. I hope I've done so deftly enough that you forgive me that for the sake of the greater point, which as I said is allegory.
The whole enterprise is meant to be a commentary on the failure of partisan politics, sort of a plea for civility with respect to others who fall on the other side of the political aisle than you, because divisiveness isn't going to get us anywhere.
Or, you can ignore all of that! I myself don't care for politics, and would not have written a book like this without trying to tell a good yarn. There's a lot of page-turning material here. Since the characters from the first book are well established, the pacing of And I Will Lead the Revolt is faster. There's more at stake, and with the addition of only two new viewpoint characters, there's not much reason to dawdle.
Despite the title and cover, which some might find provocative or perhaps "not their cup of tea," I would encourage you to check it out anyway. Yes there is some action and violence, but it's never gratuitous. Nor is the story bogged down in political minutia. It's about the struggles of a single mother. It's a survivalist's tale. It's about two brothers who have to learn the nature of sacrifice. In several respects, it's a young man's striving to find his place in the world. It's also a young woman's decision to stand in the gap when no one else will. And it's about the universal desire to protect one's family.
Pick up an eBook from your favorite vendor today or a paperback from Amazon, and if you enjoy the read, please take the time to leave a rating or review.
Up next, part 2 with some spoilers.
The meat and potatoes are the characters who are stuck in this world where the republic has split into two separate governments: the Directorate in the East and the Unites States Valiant in the West. The interconnection of their stories, their struggles and strife in spite of their environment, is what makes this so interesting.
I'll admit this series is quite different than the rest of my books. It's written with more of a mass-market style, but I tried to retain a vestige of legitimacy in a world of generic thriller drivel. I want you to care about the characters, which is why I spent much of the previous book (Godspeed, Carry My Bullet) character-building.
The series itself is also somewhat of an allegory, so while I took pains to reflect accuracy with respect to weapons, locations, climate, mechanics, and even in one case a Native American ritual, I ignored a lot or otherwise took liberties. For example, there isn't any consideration given to what's going on outside of the United States, no commentary on international relations at all. Or in other cases, I put characters into scenarios where they might not get much further than two steps without the coaxing hand of the author. I hope I've done so deftly enough that you forgive me that for the sake of the greater point, which as I said is allegory.
The whole enterprise is meant to be a commentary on the failure of partisan politics, sort of a plea for civility with respect to others who fall on the other side of the political aisle than you, because divisiveness isn't going to get us anywhere.
Or, you can ignore all of that! I myself don't care for politics, and would not have written a book like this without trying to tell a good yarn. There's a lot of page-turning material here. Since the characters from the first book are well established, the pacing of And I Will Lead the Revolt is faster. There's more at stake, and with the addition of only two new viewpoint characters, there's not much reason to dawdle.
Despite the title and cover, which some might find provocative or perhaps "not their cup of tea," I would encourage you to check it out anyway. Yes there is some action and violence, but it's never gratuitous. Nor is the story bogged down in political minutia. It's about the struggles of a single mother. It's a survivalist's tale. It's about two brothers who have to learn the nature of sacrifice. In several respects, it's a young man's striving to find his place in the world. It's also a young woman's decision to stand in the gap when no one else will. And it's about the universal desire to protect one's family.
Pick up an eBook from your favorite vendor today or a paperback from Amazon, and if you enjoy the read, please take the time to leave a rating or review.
Up next, part 2 with some spoilers.
October 16, 2017
The writing process
The more I write, the more the creative process changes. My first foray into fiction resulted in short stories for the most part. They were written organically, with simple, abstract ideas in mind. Literally, I would sit down and try to write with no outline at all. I was repulsed by the idea of approaching something creative as if it were something clinical. It needed to be pure. Three novellas and almost three novels later, I've found the outline is indispensable.
How did I get there? It was, well, organic I guess. My ideas became more complex, notably with the impetus that drove The Camaro Murders. It was high concept, yet literary and grounded, multi-character and to a certain point plot-driven. Timeline was critical because the story is told out of order.
With all that in mind, what evolved into an "outline" was hardly what I'd call an outline today. A semblance of that didn't evolve until I wrote Lady in Flames. It's continued to evolve with each release, to the point where now I typically write a paragraph for each chapter and create a cast of characters, like I did for Godspeed, Carry My Bullet and Beacon Road Bedlam.
However, it's not only the outlining process that's changed. The actual writing itself comes together in an entirely different way than before. I never used to advance past a paragraph without it being perfect, or at least what seemed perfect at that moment. This of course slowed down the writing process, sometimes to the point of me losing interest in what I was writing. So I let go a bit, realizing that moving past the thought and hammering out the story was more important. Revisiting the weaker, underdeveloped writing at a later stage, even as late as the editing process, resulted in stronger writing because you see things different with fresh eyes.
My current endeavor is another high concept story with a lot of abstract ideas that I can see clearly in my head. Because it's easy to take that for granted, It's hard not to "tell" rather than "show." So I've found myself laying out the skeleton of the story, getting the ideas out in the narrative without weaving the rich detail and evocative prose that I want to be there in the end. That will come later.
I won't lie. The writing process has become more like work than it ever has. Striving to write at professional standards demands that much, but it's the creative impulse that provides motivation for all of it. I hope you as the reader enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it.
How did I get there? It was, well, organic I guess. My ideas became more complex, notably with the impetus that drove The Camaro Murders. It was high concept, yet literary and grounded, multi-character and to a certain point plot-driven. Timeline was critical because the story is told out of order.
With all that in mind, what evolved into an "outline" was hardly what I'd call an outline today. A semblance of that didn't evolve until I wrote Lady in Flames. It's continued to evolve with each release, to the point where now I typically write a paragraph for each chapter and create a cast of characters, like I did for Godspeed, Carry My Bullet and Beacon Road Bedlam.
However, it's not only the outlining process that's changed. The actual writing itself comes together in an entirely different way than before. I never used to advance past a paragraph without it being perfect, or at least what seemed perfect at that moment. This of course slowed down the writing process, sometimes to the point of me losing interest in what I was writing. So I let go a bit, realizing that moving past the thought and hammering out the story was more important. Revisiting the weaker, underdeveloped writing at a later stage, even as late as the editing process, resulted in stronger writing because you see things different with fresh eyes.
My current endeavor is another high concept story with a lot of abstract ideas that I can see clearly in my head. Because it's easy to take that for granted, It's hard not to "tell" rather than "show." So I've found myself laying out the skeleton of the story, getting the ideas out in the narrative without weaving the rich detail and evocative prose that I want to be there in the end. That will come later.
I won't lie. The writing process has become more like work than it ever has. Striving to write at professional standards demands that much, but it's the creative impulse that provides motivation for all of it. I hope you as the reader enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it.
August 29, 2017
What is experimental fiction?
I've been touting the Driver series as experimental fiction for some time now, though only officially as of this year. I'm always hesitant to label my fiction as one specific genre since I'm not the least interested in writing genre fiction per se. And experimental fiction may not really be a true genre by itself. I see it as more of a technique than anything.
So is the Driver series in fact a good example of experimental fiction? It's not as if I'm trying to write an entire book without the use of the letter "e" or tell a story from the perspective of monosyllabic ants. I value character development and plot, but not one at the expense of the other. Conflict is still important. The story should not be sacrificed at the altar of technique or medium; however, the story in no way needs to be, or necessarily should be, formulaic.
I set out to write The Camaro Murders with the intent to ask something of the reader. I wanted him or her to invest themselves in the story and think through it, to come to his or her own conclusions. As such, the first person narratives in this book are somewhat stark monologues, and they are told in a non-chronological order. Coupled with the subject matter, the reader is left with a very literary murder mystery with a large supernatural aspect. I love the contrast with this--the fantastic elements juxtaposed against the basic, concrete thoughts of the characters.
Lady in Flames, the second book in the series, continues the first person points of view. I enjoyed being inside the characters' heads in The Camaro Murders, but I wanted the narrative to exhibit more of a story-telling style with richer detail. It needed to be more evocative. The result is not my favorite Driver story plot-wise, but maybe my favorite Driver story writing-wise.
The latest Driver installment is Beacon Road Bedlam. Seeing as the first two books were first person and that the new story would explore the supernatural side of things in more detail, I decided to write from the third person point of view. Readers gets a different perspective I think, one that perhaps grounds them more in the mechanics of the world I created. There was also a noirish-pulpy vibe that kept coming to me with the flashbacks to the part of the story that takes place in the 1950's, hence the stylized cover art.
Future books in the Driver series will continue to be flexible and adaptive with regard to format and technique, but there will always be a good yarn, that I promise.
Pick up the entire series today for only .99 cents!
https://books.pronoun.com/the-camaro-...
https://books.pronoun.com/lady-in-fla...
https://books.pronoun.com/beacon-road...
So is the Driver series in fact a good example of experimental fiction? It's not as if I'm trying to write an entire book without the use of the letter "e" or tell a story from the perspective of monosyllabic ants. I value character development and plot, but not one at the expense of the other. Conflict is still important. The story should not be sacrificed at the altar of technique or medium; however, the story in no way needs to be, or necessarily should be, formulaic.
I set out to write The Camaro Murders with the intent to ask something of the reader. I wanted him or her to invest themselves in the story and think through it, to come to his or her own conclusions. As such, the first person narratives in this book are somewhat stark monologues, and they are told in a non-chronological order. Coupled with the subject matter, the reader is left with a very literary murder mystery with a large supernatural aspect. I love the contrast with this--the fantastic elements juxtaposed against the basic, concrete thoughts of the characters.
Lady in Flames, the second book in the series, continues the first person points of view. I enjoyed being inside the characters' heads in The Camaro Murders, but I wanted the narrative to exhibit more of a story-telling style with richer detail. It needed to be more evocative. The result is not my favorite Driver story plot-wise, but maybe my favorite Driver story writing-wise.
The latest Driver installment is Beacon Road Bedlam. Seeing as the first two books were first person and that the new story would explore the supernatural side of things in more detail, I decided to write from the third person point of view. Readers gets a different perspective I think, one that perhaps grounds them more in the mechanics of the world I created. There was also a noirish-pulpy vibe that kept coming to me with the flashbacks to the part of the story that takes place in the 1950's, hence the stylized cover art.
Future books in the Driver series will continue to be flexible and adaptive with regard to format and technique, but there will always be a good yarn, that I promise.
Pick up the entire series today for only .99 cents!
https://books.pronoun.com/the-camaro-...
https://books.pronoun.com/lady-in-fla...
https://books.pronoun.com/beacon-road...
May 1, 2017
New release: Beacon Road Bedlam
I'm excited to announce the release of Beacon Road Bedlam. This is the third Driver story, and the first full-length novel in the series (the previous two books are novellas).
This book has been in the works for a while, its release delayed by the birth and rearing of children, the decision to independently release Godspeed, Carry My Bullet last year, as well as managing the re-release of my back catalog earlier this year. It was slow-going at first.
BRB continues the experimental approach of the series, albeit in a different format this time. I had written The Camaro Murders and Lady in Flames in the first person point of view; each had their own nuances with regard to timeline. So I wanted to try third person with BRB. I had just come off of Godspeed and was thinking of narratives from that perspective, but it just wasn't flowing.
The voices of certain characters (primarily the Sheriff) were so ingrained in my head, it was difficult for those voices to not come through in the narrative. I think a character's voice should come through in dialogue or inner monologue, but not the actual narrative. It took around six months to get some traction on this front.
However, I still couldn't leave the first person POV alone. I ended up writing some first person flashbacks into the story which I hope were done in an original way. I guess you could say that's the experimental part of this book. The Driver series is where I have freedom to try new and sometimes unorthodox things. And I want each Driver story to be a little different.
Is the book more accessible because of the third person? Probably, but that wasn't a primary motivation. I really wanted to explore the Upper Territory in greater detail. It's difficult to be poetic with description when things are told from first person, since I'm limited to the character's thoughts, and the character may not think anything that would pass as prose. With third person, I can be detached and paint a picture for the reader. Since the Upper Territory is a dream world of sorts, there were nuances that merited some more descriptive details that were lacking in the previous books.
Conceptually, "layers" were important to the story. The intertwining threads of the mystery are told in layers comprised of different characters' experiences, both living and dead. No one layer tells the whole story. The reader has to see them all together.
Thematically, "truth," or the search of, is something that drives all three viewpoint characters. It becomes an obsession for each in their own way: the Driver, Sheriff Hildersham, and Tad Ozzel (a pesky reporter).
I have to make mention of Ozzel. He was a lot of fun to write. He's named for Admiral Ozzel from Empire Strikes Back. According to Vader, he's "as clumsy as he is stupid." Similarly, Tad Ozzel is an over-confident fool with an inflated sense of self-importance. He was also partially modeled on Schwarzwald/Michael Seebach from The Big O, a reporter who's search for truth becomes a destructive obsession.
A good portion of the story takes place in the 50s (see flashbacks), which lent a pulpy/noir vibe, I thought. I wanted to capture that feeling in the cover, and Justin Adams at Varia Studios did a phenomenal job in doing so.
Another fun/interesting fact is that two short stories I wrote (well, technically one of them isn't finished) contributed details to the storyline. This happens quite frequently, and I hope to someday release an anthology of short stories so you as the reader can see how some of this stuff takes root.
There's a lot going on here! How would I classify this book? I'd say it's a supernatural thriller/murder mystery with rural noir overtones. If that doesn't get you interested, I don't know what will.
Thanks for reading, and as always, please take the time to leave a rating or review.
This book has been in the works for a while, its release delayed by the birth and rearing of children, the decision to independently release Godspeed, Carry My Bullet last year, as well as managing the re-release of my back catalog earlier this year. It was slow-going at first.
BRB continues the experimental approach of the series, albeit in a different format this time. I had written The Camaro Murders and Lady in Flames in the first person point of view; each had their own nuances with regard to timeline. So I wanted to try third person with BRB. I had just come off of Godspeed and was thinking of narratives from that perspective, but it just wasn't flowing.
The voices of certain characters (primarily the Sheriff) were so ingrained in my head, it was difficult for those voices to not come through in the narrative. I think a character's voice should come through in dialogue or inner monologue, but not the actual narrative. It took around six months to get some traction on this front.
However, I still couldn't leave the first person POV alone. I ended up writing some first person flashbacks into the story which I hope were done in an original way. I guess you could say that's the experimental part of this book. The Driver series is where I have freedom to try new and sometimes unorthodox things. And I want each Driver story to be a little different.
Is the book more accessible because of the third person? Probably, but that wasn't a primary motivation. I really wanted to explore the Upper Territory in greater detail. It's difficult to be poetic with description when things are told from first person, since I'm limited to the character's thoughts, and the character may not think anything that would pass as prose. With third person, I can be detached and paint a picture for the reader. Since the Upper Territory is a dream world of sorts, there were nuances that merited some more descriptive details that were lacking in the previous books.
Conceptually, "layers" were important to the story. The intertwining threads of the mystery are told in layers comprised of different characters' experiences, both living and dead. No one layer tells the whole story. The reader has to see them all together.
Thematically, "truth," or the search of, is something that drives all three viewpoint characters. It becomes an obsession for each in their own way: the Driver, Sheriff Hildersham, and Tad Ozzel (a pesky reporter).
I have to make mention of Ozzel. He was a lot of fun to write. He's named for Admiral Ozzel from Empire Strikes Back. According to Vader, he's "as clumsy as he is stupid." Similarly, Tad Ozzel is an over-confident fool with an inflated sense of self-importance. He was also partially modeled on Schwarzwald/Michael Seebach from The Big O, a reporter who's search for truth becomes a destructive obsession.
A good portion of the story takes place in the 50s (see flashbacks), which lent a pulpy/noir vibe, I thought. I wanted to capture that feeling in the cover, and Justin Adams at Varia Studios did a phenomenal job in doing so.
Another fun/interesting fact is that two short stories I wrote (well, technically one of them isn't finished) contributed details to the storyline. This happens quite frequently, and I hope to someday release an anthology of short stories so you as the reader can see how some of this stuff takes root.
There's a lot going on here! How would I classify this book? I'd say it's a supernatural thriller/murder mystery with rural noir overtones. If that doesn't get you interested, I don't know what will.
Thanks for reading, and as always, please take the time to leave a rating or review.
April 18, 2016
New release: Godspeed, Carry My Bullet (Post 2 of 2)
I promised a second post on my new release, Godspeed, Carry My Bullet. There was some explaining I needed to do for why I reversed my long-held stance that I would never self-publish. So here are my excuses.
I understand there's a stigma with self-publishing, though less so these days with the advent of the eBook. The ease by which an unknown writer can get his or her work in front of readers has never been easier. This is great for those authors whose work is legitimate but may not fit the mold of whatever the print industry says is the "next big thing." The downside is that anybody can publish whatever tripe they want, which has flooded the market with less than stellar prose.
The thought that I might fall into the latter category troubled me. I was adamant that I needed to be vetted by an agent and/or publisher. That would be proof positive that I wasn't a hack. I could honestly say I'd been published.
After releasing three novellas through an independent publisher (Untreed Reads), I felt legitimized in that sense, and was looking forward to my next release.
Then I wrote a book that (in my opinion) was the best thing I'd written, the most accessible thing I'd written, and the most relevant/timely thing I'd written. I thought for sure I'd have an easier time getting it published since this book was way more conventional than my novellas. However, I couldn't find a home for it.
Given our current political climate, I felt strongly that this book should be out there. Many people are disenchanted with politics whereas others still think they should be slinging mud. And even though I usually loathe anything that's politically charged (books, music, etc.), I wanted to make my point about it using the only soapbox I have: my writing.
I rationalized that I had proved myself three times over. I could write well enough to get published, and everything after that was subjective on the part of the editor/publisher. So my qualms about writing garbage were lessened.
There was also something to be said about my motivation for writing the book in the first place. If you remember from the first post, the genesis of the story was found in a joke among co-workers. The plot details, of course, are all me, but the premise wasn't something that I considered "official Ian Lewis canon." I wrote this for fun. So why not release it for fun?
The tipping point was my discovery of pronoun.com. The site is clean, modern, and easy to use. Pronoun gets you on all of the major eBook vendors including Amazon (no KDP program), provides sales analytics, aggregates your payments through PayPal on a monthly basis, and is FREE. They don't get a cut of anything. By taking the grunt work out of file conversion, obtaining an ISBN number, coordinating with different vendors, etc., Pronoun removed any excuses I had left.
With the election season upon us, I buckled down and worked on a second round of revisions. And a third. And a fourth. In the end, I cut out approximately four thousand words, tightened the narrative, and caught what I hope were the last few mechanical issues.
Now "Godspeed, Carry My Bullet" is in the world. I consider this a "semi-professional" release, but it's my strongest effort to date. I hope you as the reader enjoy every page of it.
I understand there's a stigma with self-publishing, though less so these days with the advent of the eBook. The ease by which an unknown writer can get his or her work in front of readers has never been easier. This is great for those authors whose work is legitimate but may not fit the mold of whatever the print industry says is the "next big thing." The downside is that anybody can publish whatever tripe they want, which has flooded the market with less than stellar prose.
The thought that I might fall into the latter category troubled me. I was adamant that I needed to be vetted by an agent and/or publisher. That would be proof positive that I wasn't a hack. I could honestly say I'd been published.
After releasing three novellas through an independent publisher (Untreed Reads), I felt legitimized in that sense, and was looking forward to my next release.
Then I wrote a book that (in my opinion) was the best thing I'd written, the most accessible thing I'd written, and the most relevant/timely thing I'd written. I thought for sure I'd have an easier time getting it published since this book was way more conventional than my novellas. However, I couldn't find a home for it.
Given our current political climate, I felt strongly that this book should be out there. Many people are disenchanted with politics whereas others still think they should be slinging mud. And even though I usually loathe anything that's politically charged (books, music, etc.), I wanted to make my point about it using the only soapbox I have: my writing.
I rationalized that I had proved myself three times over. I could write well enough to get published, and everything after that was subjective on the part of the editor/publisher. So my qualms about writing garbage were lessened.
There was also something to be said about my motivation for writing the book in the first place. If you remember from the first post, the genesis of the story was found in a joke among co-workers. The plot details, of course, are all me, but the premise wasn't something that I considered "official Ian Lewis canon." I wrote this for fun. So why not release it for fun?
The tipping point was my discovery of pronoun.com. The site is clean, modern, and easy to use. Pronoun gets you on all of the major eBook vendors including Amazon (no KDP program), provides sales analytics, aggregates your payments through PayPal on a monthly basis, and is FREE. They don't get a cut of anything. By taking the grunt work out of file conversion, obtaining an ISBN number, coordinating with different vendors, etc., Pronoun removed any excuses I had left.
With the election season upon us, I buckled down and worked on a second round of revisions. And a third. And a fourth. In the end, I cut out approximately four thousand words, tightened the narrative, and caught what I hope were the last few mechanical issues.
Now "Godspeed, Carry My Bullet" is in the world. I consider this a "semi-professional" release, but it's my strongest effort to date. I hope you as the reader enjoy every page of it.
April 6, 2016
New release: Godspeed, Carry My Bullet (Post 1 of 2)
I'm excited to announce the release of my first full-length novel: Godspeed, Carry My Bullet. This is the first of two posts I plan to do for the release, the first discussing the idea behind the book itself. The second post will focus on the decision to self-publish and what that process looked like.
This book has been a long time coming. The idea for the story goes back to around 2008, so it stewed for a while even before I began writing it. Once I completed it, it sat on the shelf during which time I not only completed a short novel that will serve as the next entry in the Driver series, but I also started the sequel to this book.
The whole thing is based on an inside joke between a few co-workers of mine in which an embellished version of ourselves were characters in a somewhat Dystopian United States. There were political, or perhaps apolitical overtones to it, and I told them I'd write a story about it.
The premise was that despite the animosity between our political parties, the politicians at the top of the heap are really the same people regardless of their party affiliation. They are all wealthy, they often lie, they all make promises they can't keep, and in some cases they're members of the same fraternal organizations.
To us, it seemed that creating division was a clever, sneaky way to maintain control. With everyone at each others' throats about this issue or that, not much gets done. We're distracted. Changes from one administration to the next are often superficial. Regardless of party, the government continues to get bigger, the national debt continues to increase, and so forth. The concept seemed relevant to me, so I ran with it.
Enter "Godspeed, Carry My Bullet." It's sort of an alternate history where the economic recession of 2008 gets so bad that the U.S. experiences economic collapse. The government soon follows, leaving two illegitimate governments in its place. Fast forward five years, and we have a variety of characters painted against this backdrop: a nomadic survivalist, a preacher turned vigilante, a single mother, an undercover operative fighting to restore Constitutional government, and an angry would-be assassin. Their struggles fuel the page-turning adventure that ensues.
In all, I think it's a timely commentary given our current political climate. The two governments featured in the novel aren't meant to be reflections of the Republican and Democratic parties; they are instead meant to serve as an allegory for our two-party system. I of course took artistic license in timelines and how a collapse of this nature could happen, but the "how" isn't important to the story, nor is it the central focus.
If you choose to read, thank you! I would appreciate an honest, constructive review here on GoodReads and/or your eBook vendor of choice.
This book has been a long time coming. The idea for the story goes back to around 2008, so it stewed for a while even before I began writing it. Once I completed it, it sat on the shelf during which time I not only completed a short novel that will serve as the next entry in the Driver series, but I also started the sequel to this book.
The whole thing is based on an inside joke between a few co-workers of mine in which an embellished version of ourselves were characters in a somewhat Dystopian United States. There were political, or perhaps apolitical overtones to it, and I told them I'd write a story about it.
The premise was that despite the animosity between our political parties, the politicians at the top of the heap are really the same people regardless of their party affiliation. They are all wealthy, they often lie, they all make promises they can't keep, and in some cases they're members of the same fraternal organizations.
To us, it seemed that creating division was a clever, sneaky way to maintain control. With everyone at each others' throats about this issue or that, not much gets done. We're distracted. Changes from one administration to the next are often superficial. Regardless of party, the government continues to get bigger, the national debt continues to increase, and so forth. The concept seemed relevant to me, so I ran with it.
Enter "Godspeed, Carry My Bullet." It's sort of an alternate history where the economic recession of 2008 gets so bad that the U.S. experiences economic collapse. The government soon follows, leaving two illegitimate governments in its place. Fast forward five years, and we have a variety of characters painted against this backdrop: a nomadic survivalist, a preacher turned vigilante, a single mother, an undercover operative fighting to restore Constitutional government, and an angry would-be assassin. Their struggles fuel the page-turning adventure that ensues.
In all, I think it's a timely commentary given our current political climate. The two governments featured in the novel aren't meant to be reflections of the Republican and Democratic parties; they are instead meant to serve as an allegory for our two-party system. I of course took artistic license in timelines and how a collapse of this nature could happen, but the "how" isn't important to the story, nor is it the central focus.
If you choose to read, thank you! I would appreciate an honest, constructive review here on GoodReads and/or your eBook vendor of choice.
August 31, 2015
The Driver's world (small spoiler alert)
If you've been reading, you know that the Driver is a recurring character in the world of Ian Lewis Fiction. However, the Driver's stories to date don't always permit a black and white reading of this world because they are told in first person. Case in point: The Camaro Murders is composed of four characters' inner monologues. Rich, vivid detail takes a backseat in some cases to the force of the characters' thoughts.
Though Lady in Flames exhibits more of a storytelling style, the reader is still limited to the perceptions of the viewpoint characters. So if you were ever left begging for more information, read on! Or perhaps you've stumbled upon this post and want to gauge whether you'd like to read either novella. At any rate, here is the Driver's world:
The Driver is a murdered soul who operates out of ‘The Upper Territory,’ which is the place where murdered souls reside. The trauma of murder splits soul from spirit, and so these souls cannot enter eternity until they find their spirits or ‘ghosts.’ In order to navigate this in-between world, souls are given ‘super-physical’ bodies. These bodies are based on a DNA sample siphoned from their dying/dead physical bodies, so their appearance reflects a semblance of what they looked like in the real world. Those who wish to help newly murdered souls find their ghosts join a group called Abel’s Fold; this group is responsible for constructing new bodies and ushering souls into the Territory.
The Driver is a somewhat wayward member of the Fold. His body, like all others in the Territory, contains no blood, does not need to breathe, eat, or sleep, and retains a limited set of basic sensory functions. Despite this, his body also has advanced properties, most of which are useful in the real world such as the ability to diffuse in and out of the visible spectrum, the ability to observe other people’s consciousness/thoughts, and a somewhat limited ability to manipulate or enhance matter.
Members of Abel’s Fold are the only ones who know how to traverse the ‘sleeves’ between the Upper Territory and the real world. The Driver is unique in his ability to travel in that he drives a phantom car. This is because when he died, the member of the Fold who attempted to grab a snapshot of his body ‘overshot’ and captured a snapshot of the physical world around the Driver, which was a 1985 Camaro IROC Z. The Camaro operates almost like an appendage to him, and maintains similar properties as his body. It also ‘responds’ to his mood, and is therefore capable of making engine/exhaust noises much more guttural, fierce, and wailing than a stock IROC Z, as well as being capable of travelling at a much faster rate of speed than a normal car.
The Territory itself is for all intents and purposes an amalgam of hallucinations. The patchwork of dreamscapes that make up the Territory are based on peoples’ memories. To a certain extent, souls see what they want because they see things as they remember them. Mostly though, peoples’ memories mold the Territory a certain way and hang around after those people move on (though they do fade over time). Because the Territory is somewhat of a dream world, much of it seems like a dream with varying levels of substance. Sometimes, vibrant; other times dull and waxen.
The Driver is a vigilante at heart, and is driven by his thirst for justice. Tortured by the murders he witnesses day in and day out, he becomes obsessed with protecting those he deems innocent. This of course causes strife because he is not supposed to intercede; he is only supposed to gather murdered souls and bring them into the Territory. The first time he breaks the rules is in “The Camaro Murders.” Unseen, the Driver helps a young boy fight off his would-be murderer. This causes an unintended ripple effect years later where Sheriff Hildersham gets roped into an unsolved murder investigation. Still somewhat clumsy and not overly adept at traversing the real world, the rookie Driver does his best to drop hints and lead the Sheriff to the needed evidence to solve the case.
Several years later, the Driver returns in “Lady in Flames,” where he continues to overstep his bounds by saving several people in the small town of Halgraeve who otherwise were supposed to die. His sense of self-righteousness is now deeply rooted, and his actions serve to solidify his status as a rogue member of the Fold.
In the next installment, which I hope to see published sometime in the near future, you will see the Driver begin to understand the disastrous consequences of his behavior, which will serve as a jumping off point for the next two (planned) Driver stories after that.
Though Lady in Flames exhibits more of a storytelling style, the reader is still limited to the perceptions of the viewpoint characters. So if you were ever left begging for more information, read on! Or perhaps you've stumbled upon this post and want to gauge whether you'd like to read either novella. At any rate, here is the Driver's world:
The Driver is a murdered soul who operates out of ‘The Upper Territory,’ which is the place where murdered souls reside. The trauma of murder splits soul from spirit, and so these souls cannot enter eternity until they find their spirits or ‘ghosts.’ In order to navigate this in-between world, souls are given ‘super-physical’ bodies. These bodies are based on a DNA sample siphoned from their dying/dead physical bodies, so their appearance reflects a semblance of what they looked like in the real world. Those who wish to help newly murdered souls find their ghosts join a group called Abel’s Fold; this group is responsible for constructing new bodies and ushering souls into the Territory.
The Driver is a somewhat wayward member of the Fold. His body, like all others in the Territory, contains no blood, does not need to breathe, eat, or sleep, and retains a limited set of basic sensory functions. Despite this, his body also has advanced properties, most of which are useful in the real world such as the ability to diffuse in and out of the visible spectrum, the ability to observe other people’s consciousness/thoughts, and a somewhat limited ability to manipulate or enhance matter.
Members of Abel’s Fold are the only ones who know how to traverse the ‘sleeves’ between the Upper Territory and the real world. The Driver is unique in his ability to travel in that he drives a phantom car. This is because when he died, the member of the Fold who attempted to grab a snapshot of his body ‘overshot’ and captured a snapshot of the physical world around the Driver, which was a 1985 Camaro IROC Z. The Camaro operates almost like an appendage to him, and maintains similar properties as his body. It also ‘responds’ to his mood, and is therefore capable of making engine/exhaust noises much more guttural, fierce, and wailing than a stock IROC Z, as well as being capable of travelling at a much faster rate of speed than a normal car.
The Territory itself is for all intents and purposes an amalgam of hallucinations. The patchwork of dreamscapes that make up the Territory are based on peoples’ memories. To a certain extent, souls see what they want because they see things as they remember them. Mostly though, peoples’ memories mold the Territory a certain way and hang around after those people move on (though they do fade over time). Because the Territory is somewhat of a dream world, much of it seems like a dream with varying levels of substance. Sometimes, vibrant; other times dull and waxen.
The Driver is a vigilante at heart, and is driven by his thirst for justice. Tortured by the murders he witnesses day in and day out, he becomes obsessed with protecting those he deems innocent. This of course causes strife because he is not supposed to intercede; he is only supposed to gather murdered souls and bring them into the Territory. The first time he breaks the rules is in “The Camaro Murders.” Unseen, the Driver helps a young boy fight off his would-be murderer. This causes an unintended ripple effect years later where Sheriff Hildersham gets roped into an unsolved murder investigation. Still somewhat clumsy and not overly adept at traversing the real world, the rookie Driver does his best to drop hints and lead the Sheriff to the needed evidence to solve the case.
Several years later, the Driver returns in “Lady in Flames,” where he continues to overstep his bounds by saving several people in the small town of Halgraeve who otherwise were supposed to die. His sense of self-righteousness is now deeply rooted, and his actions serve to solidify his status as a rogue member of the Fold.
In the next installment, which I hope to see published sometime in the near future, you will see the Driver begin to understand the disastrous consequences of his behavior, which will serve as a jumping off point for the next two (planned) Driver stories after that.
June 11, 2013
Power in the Hands of One: In Retrospect
I wrote Power in the Hands of One circa 2009. I wasn't certain whether it would ever see the light of day, so I'm excited about its release with Untreed Reads, even if it coincidentally bumps up against Pacific Rim this summer.
At any rate, it's fun to go back and read after letting it sit for awhile. I still get sucked in every time; I find myself not able to put it down despite the fact that I know what's going to happen. This is one aspect of the story that I'm really happy with. The reader is compelled to keep turning the page at the end of each chapter--even this reader!
It's also interesting to recall what initially drove the story and what it ultimately became. I had been watching old episodes of Voltron and The Big O on DVD and decided to write a giant robot story. I wanted to capture some of the magic I remembered watching Voltron as a kid as well as some of the intrigue from The Big O, which I stumbled upon years later. Both of those shows influenced the story, in some ways more overtly than others. For example, the dialogue for Thomas Worthington, the story's reclusive super-genius, was inspired by the rhetoric of Schwarzwald from The Big O.
Despite the story's fantastic aspects, I still wanted to keep the technology as believable as possible. The majority of the features and weaponry were based on actual technology that exists today or semblances thereof. Metamaterials, programmable matter, pulsed energy projectiles--they all exist, albeit in less advanced forms than in the book. Even the coma weapon has its roots in the Active Denial Systems used by the Military.
In the end, the story evolved into a commentary on moral relativism--essentially the premise that no matter how content one is with not taking a stance on something, one will admit to absolutes when pressed. I chose to leverage two view points which were polar opposites in order to create this type of conflict for Troy, the viewpoint character, rather than actually digging into the right or wrong of any of the viewpoints or characters.
So there you have it--my first (published) foray into sci-fi. I hope you as the reader enjoy it, even if you've never heard, "Activate interlock! Dynotherms connected! Infracells up! Mega thrusters are go!"
At any rate, it's fun to go back and read after letting it sit for awhile. I still get sucked in every time; I find myself not able to put it down despite the fact that I know what's going to happen. This is one aspect of the story that I'm really happy with. The reader is compelled to keep turning the page at the end of each chapter--even this reader!
It's also interesting to recall what initially drove the story and what it ultimately became. I had been watching old episodes of Voltron and The Big O on DVD and decided to write a giant robot story. I wanted to capture some of the magic I remembered watching Voltron as a kid as well as some of the intrigue from The Big O, which I stumbled upon years later. Both of those shows influenced the story, in some ways more overtly than others. For example, the dialogue for Thomas Worthington, the story's reclusive super-genius, was inspired by the rhetoric of Schwarzwald from The Big O.
Despite the story's fantastic aspects, I still wanted to keep the technology as believable as possible. The majority of the features and weaponry were based on actual technology that exists today or semblances thereof. Metamaterials, programmable matter, pulsed energy projectiles--they all exist, albeit in less advanced forms than in the book. Even the coma weapon has its roots in the Active Denial Systems used by the Military.
In the end, the story evolved into a commentary on moral relativism--essentially the premise that no matter how content one is with not taking a stance on something, one will admit to absolutes when pressed. I chose to leverage two view points which were polar opposites in order to create this type of conflict for Troy, the viewpoint character, rather than actually digging into the right or wrong of any of the viewpoints or characters.
So there you have it--my first (published) foray into sci-fi. I hope you as the reader enjoy it, even if you've never heard, "Activate interlock! Dynotherms connected! Infracells up! Mega thrusters are go!"
December 10, 2012
The Evolution of the Driver
Readers may find the Driver to be a conflicted character, and rightly so. He’s dead in the classic sense, yet lives on in the Upper Territory—an in-between place where time spent fuels his desire to immerse himself in the living. He dutifully carries out his charge as a member of Abel’s Fold, but not without straying onto tangents where he interferes with the natural way of things. He seeks solitude and isolation, though often carries on a semblance of friendship with aborted fetuses who wander the Territory. And now that he has appeared in two novellas, the Driver has taken up permanent residence in my mind. He matters to me as a character…but this was not always the case.
The Driver began as a device, an instrument. He was never meant to be something as flimsy as a symbol, but rather a concrete method by which I could tell the flip side of a murder mystery—The Camaro Murders. He didn’t even need a real name; he was only a shadowy figure who slipped in and out of the living and provided glimpses into what happens after a murder. His voice was no more important than the other characters’ voices.
My intent had always been to write The Camaro Murders as a multi-character, first person story. I was listening to a lot of Coheed and Cambria as well as The Prizefighter Inferno at the time, both of which tell multifaceted stories with multiple narratives and subplots. With only the lyrics to help piece together the backstory, I as the listener felt compelled to delve into the online forums to understand more about how this world worked. In turn, I wanted to achieve a similar effect with The Camaro Murders: tell a story from different perspectives as well as leave room for the reader’s inquisitive mind to piece things together.
So I started with the force that would propel the rest of the characters—the Driver. I wrote the last chapter, “The Wicked and Despair,” first. Even though it occurs early in the story from a chronology perspective, I wanted the Driver’s defining moment to serve as the finish to the story. However, in doing so, I realized I had very easily set myself up for future stories with him. The question of whether he ever finds his ghost and what might happen up until that point was too interesting to pass up.
Enter “Lady in Flames.” We see an “older” Driver, arguably more mature and wizened from an experience point of view. We assume he’s seen it all by now. And yet he resembles his reckless self from fifteen years prior. He looks the same as when he died and he’s still motivated by his own sense of right and wrong. The trappings of his role of retrieving murdered souls afford him opportunities to meddle in the physical world just as he did in The Camaro Murders. And he still shoulders guilt for his part in Ezra Mendelssohn’s death.
You see, the Driver needs saving just as much as the people he tries to help. He’s adrift in his own sea of obsessive tendencies which keep him in constant conflict with the purpose of Abel’s Fold. He knows he cannot be whole until he finds his ghost, yet despises himself for wanting to find it. He rails against the injustice of the murder of innocent people and in some desperate way hopes he will be able to earn salvation with his good intentions.
The Driver is a character with which I could potentially grow old. I don’t know whether he’ll stick with me for that long, but someday I would like to see him find redemption of some kind. So if you’ll forgive me the pun, I’ll ask that you ride along with the Driver to see where the road takes him.
The Driver began as a device, an instrument. He was never meant to be something as flimsy as a symbol, but rather a concrete method by which I could tell the flip side of a murder mystery—The Camaro Murders. He didn’t even need a real name; he was only a shadowy figure who slipped in and out of the living and provided glimpses into what happens after a murder. His voice was no more important than the other characters’ voices.
My intent had always been to write The Camaro Murders as a multi-character, first person story. I was listening to a lot of Coheed and Cambria as well as The Prizefighter Inferno at the time, both of which tell multifaceted stories with multiple narratives and subplots. With only the lyrics to help piece together the backstory, I as the listener felt compelled to delve into the online forums to understand more about how this world worked. In turn, I wanted to achieve a similar effect with The Camaro Murders: tell a story from different perspectives as well as leave room for the reader’s inquisitive mind to piece things together.
So I started with the force that would propel the rest of the characters—the Driver. I wrote the last chapter, “The Wicked and Despair,” first. Even though it occurs early in the story from a chronology perspective, I wanted the Driver’s defining moment to serve as the finish to the story. However, in doing so, I realized I had very easily set myself up for future stories with him. The question of whether he ever finds his ghost and what might happen up until that point was too interesting to pass up.
Enter “Lady in Flames.” We see an “older” Driver, arguably more mature and wizened from an experience point of view. We assume he’s seen it all by now. And yet he resembles his reckless self from fifteen years prior. He looks the same as when he died and he’s still motivated by his own sense of right and wrong. The trappings of his role of retrieving murdered souls afford him opportunities to meddle in the physical world just as he did in The Camaro Murders. And he still shoulders guilt for his part in Ezra Mendelssohn’s death.
You see, the Driver needs saving just as much as the people he tries to help. He’s adrift in his own sea of obsessive tendencies which keep him in constant conflict with the purpose of Abel’s Fold. He knows he cannot be whole until he finds his ghost, yet despises himself for wanting to find it. He rails against the injustice of the murder of innocent people and in some desperate way hopes he will be able to earn salvation with his good intentions.
The Driver is a character with which I could potentially grow old. I don’t know whether he’ll stick with me for that long, but someday I would like to see him find redemption of some kind. So if you’ll forgive me the pun, I’ll ask that you ride along with the Driver to see where the road takes him.
September 24, 2012
A timeline for The Camaro Murders
The Camaro Murders was an experiment. I wanted to write something that would be valued by readers who like to think--readers who like to dig into the story and figure things out for themselves. So I tried to strike a balance between dropping carefully nuanced details and force-feeding explanations for things like the mechanics of the super-physical world, the origin of the Driver, Ezra Mendelssohn's motive, and so forth. If successful, the reader's interest is piqued and he or she re-reads the story to glean a better understanding of what happened between two winters, thirteen years apart. If not, then the cult following and forums discussing how an Irish Wolfhound might fit inside a Camaro, even a phantom one, would remain an outlandish what-if.
Yes, The Camaro Murders is unconventional in a sense. Some readers may not "get it." Some may even accuse it of being too literary. I still like the story nonetheless. The reader gets to drop in for a while and observe before dropping back out. To me, it's that snapshot that keeps me thinking after I've finished reading/watching/listening.
That being said, I thought it would be helpful to provide a timeline for The Camaro Murders to help fill-in some of the (intentional) gaps:
October 27th, 1986: Culver Crisp walks home from school with Starla Jenkins.
October 28th, 1986: Starla disappears in the woods during recess.
October 30th, 1986: The Driver watches over Starla in the Upper Territory; he explains she was murdered and promises she won’t be hurt again.
November 26th, 1986: The Driver has his first altercation with Tickseed; Jasper comes to his aid.
November 29th, 1986: Ezra Mendelssohn tries to kill Culver. The Driver, sent to gather Culver’s soul, instead helps Culver fight-off Mendelssohn.
January 16th, 1987: The Driver leads a group of wanderlings into Mendelssohn’s consciousness in an attempt to ‘scare’ him; the strain on Mendelssohn’s mental faculties induces a stroke. Later that night, Mendelssohn is found dead in his home; Deputy Eustace Hildersham arrives at the scene and later chases a suspicious Camaro in his cruiser.
January 5th, 1999: The Driver learns that August Burroughs will soon be murdered.
January 8th, 1999: August is murdered after trying to steal Halfacre from his drunken owner.
January 10th, 1999: August wakes up in the Territory and finds Halfacre is with him. After speaking with the Driver, August decides to set out with Halfacre. They later meet Conrad and Tickseed.
February 7th, 1999: August is torn between Tickseed and the Driver as to whose side he should be on.
February 10th, 1999: August decides to help the Driver. On their way into the physical world, August and Halfacre are intercepted by Tickseed who is then overtaken by a group of wanderlings.
February 19th, 1999: Culver leaves college to spend the weekend at his old house. Later that night, Sheriff Hildersham is revisited by the Camaro for the first time in thirteen years.
February 20th, 1999: Culver goes to breakfast after dreaming about “the man and his dog” the night before. Later that evening, August and Halfacre come to gather Culver’s soul. Meanwhile, in bed, Sheriff Hildersham wonders about the reappearance of the Camaro. Before drifting off to sleep, the Camaro returns, this time outside his house.
February 23rd, 1999: The Driver’s appearances having re-awakened interest in the case, Hildersham investigates the old Mendelssohn farm and finds Starla’s remains buried in the barn’s cellar.
Yes, The Camaro Murders is unconventional in a sense. Some readers may not "get it." Some may even accuse it of being too literary. I still like the story nonetheless. The reader gets to drop in for a while and observe before dropping back out. To me, it's that snapshot that keeps me thinking after I've finished reading/watching/listening.
That being said, I thought it would be helpful to provide a timeline for The Camaro Murders to help fill-in some of the (intentional) gaps:
October 27th, 1986: Culver Crisp walks home from school with Starla Jenkins.
October 28th, 1986: Starla disappears in the woods during recess.
October 30th, 1986: The Driver watches over Starla in the Upper Territory; he explains she was murdered and promises she won’t be hurt again.
November 26th, 1986: The Driver has his first altercation with Tickseed; Jasper comes to his aid.
November 29th, 1986: Ezra Mendelssohn tries to kill Culver. The Driver, sent to gather Culver’s soul, instead helps Culver fight-off Mendelssohn.
January 16th, 1987: The Driver leads a group of wanderlings into Mendelssohn’s consciousness in an attempt to ‘scare’ him; the strain on Mendelssohn’s mental faculties induces a stroke. Later that night, Mendelssohn is found dead in his home; Deputy Eustace Hildersham arrives at the scene and later chases a suspicious Camaro in his cruiser.
January 5th, 1999: The Driver learns that August Burroughs will soon be murdered.
January 8th, 1999: August is murdered after trying to steal Halfacre from his drunken owner.
January 10th, 1999: August wakes up in the Territory and finds Halfacre is with him. After speaking with the Driver, August decides to set out with Halfacre. They later meet Conrad and Tickseed.
February 7th, 1999: August is torn between Tickseed and the Driver as to whose side he should be on.
February 10th, 1999: August decides to help the Driver. On their way into the physical world, August and Halfacre are intercepted by Tickseed who is then overtaken by a group of wanderlings.
February 19th, 1999: Culver leaves college to spend the weekend at his old house. Later that night, Sheriff Hildersham is revisited by the Camaro for the first time in thirteen years.
February 20th, 1999: Culver goes to breakfast after dreaming about “the man and his dog” the night before. Later that evening, August and Halfacre come to gather Culver’s soul. Meanwhile, in bed, Sheriff Hildersham wonders about the reappearance of the Camaro. Before drifting off to sleep, the Camaro returns, this time outside his house.
February 23rd, 1999: The Driver’s appearances having re-awakened interest in the case, Hildersham investigates the old Mendelssohn farm and finds Starla’s remains buried in the barn’s cellar.
