R. Leib's Blog: Dream State, page 4

Bounty Hunter

"Bounty Hunter" blends elements of fantasy and science fiction. This resulted in a novel that is a departure from both genres. The writing is good, the story is imaginative, and the plot is well paced. The characters are tightly drawn and interesting. It was a good read.

Four months into the new project

I'm just about four months into writing the first draft of "Tourist of Infinity", and I'm about half way done. It's going slow, but I'm pleased with how the plot and characters are developing. I have been somewhat side tracked by another project. Writers Worth is constructing another anthology, and I am honored to be writing one of the stories. More about this at a later date, the urge to write is on me, and I need to get to it.

How I adapted to glasses

I never needed glasses, when I was younger. I had 25/20 vision, which means that, at 25 feet, I could see what a normal person can see at 20 feet. This lasted until my 40s. Due, in part, to all the time I spent staring into computer screens, my vision deteriorated. I first noticed it while trying to read the TV Guide. (The earlier format had a lot of small print.) I tried getting glasses by prescription, but they did not do anything for me. I bought those glasses you see in drug stores. I need them only for reading and small work like threading a needle. The real issue came, when I tried to figure out how I was going to keep them with me. Since I had never needed glasses before, I had not develop a habit of carrying them. They did not fit into the arrangement of my life. My solution is that I have glasses secreted everywhere I go. There is a pair where I sit, and I am wearing another pair now as I type at the computer. I have kitchen glasses for when I cook or bake. Another pair of glasses, which I damaged and repaired, are put to use in my den, when I paint or work on projects. Needless to say, my wife, who has had normal glasses habits just about all her life, laughs at me all the time.

The Torturer's Daughter

Zoe Cannon has written an insightful novel set in a totalitarian society. Its flowing narrative constructs a totally believable image of a world where evil's terror is sanitized on a daily basis and even a whisper of freedom is squelched. Can the torturer's daughter emerge from this maelstrom without losing her sanity or her life?

I highly recommend "The Torturer's Daughter".

Far-Knowing

is a well written story of two young women caught between powerful forces struggling over a magical kingdom. The pacing is good and the storytelling compelling.

"The Champion of Clarendon Ditch"

I just finished reading "The Champion of Clarendon Ditch: Book 1: The Hatching". Matt Galeone has crafted a story with an interesting premise and a fast paced plot. I enjoyed it and look forward to reading the next book in the series.

Has it really been eight weeks?

Progress on the new book has been off and on. I am definitely behind on the schedule I set for myself, but that was inevitable. That's the bad news. The good news is that the story is emerging better than my original imagining of it. Characters and plot elements are developing like seedlings breaking through the earth to revel in their cotyledons. This has become something that breathes on its own. All I have to do now is provide the words to feed it.

A character takes over again

It happened again. As I was writing the first draft for the "Tourist of Infinity", a character that was going to be a walk-on decided that he had to be a major player. This happened when I was writing "The Negative's Tale", too. That character became intrinsic to the essence of that novel and has carried over into the sequel. Now another individual has taken independent life. In "The Negative's Tale", Mitchell Ebberhaus essentially wrote himself. All I needed to do was make certain that he had living companions, places to be, and scenes to play. Now Jim Tiesle is doing the same thing. This is part of what makes writing fun.

What is complete darkness like?

This may seem to be a strange idea, but how many of us have actually experienced complete darkness? For most people, there has always been some light even if it is too low to actually see much. When I was in college, I worked as a photo printing technician. The machine consisted of a track way that moved the continuous paper roll of exposures up and down through the processing chemicals. With the concentrations just right and the movement of the track way timed, the prints turned out perfectly developed every time. There were at most three lines of prints running through the machine at any one time. My job was to take reels of exposed paper and attach them to the end of a reel that was almost done being drawn into the machine. This way the processing was continuous 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Only the technician and the number of lines changed. Since the paper could not be exposed to any light at all before it had been through the developer and fixer, the first segment of the machine was in total darkness. This included the room where I attached new reels and used "Y"s to go up or down in the number of lines. You had to learn how to operate the equipment in total darkness. The room was small, but it felt as if the walls were an infinite distance away. There is no real sense of distance without sight or sound. There was no sense of time. I could work in that tiny room for hours, and it would seem like only minutes. The only measure of time was the eternal hunger of the machine for more paper to process. It never sped up. It never slowed down. If you lost a line, it was gone. You would have to start a new one by attaching a "Y" to another line. I worked the night shift.

Vitreous Detachment

I haven't posted the last two weeks for a variety of reasons. First and foremost, I have found a brand new thrill of getting old, vitreous detachment. The symptoms of this are all sorts of shapes showing up in your vision. They are called floaters. It's not that I haven't had floaters before. I have. They were small little dots that were easily ignored and eventually went away. These are much bigger and much more persistent. I went to my ophthalmologist, who is very nice as well as being a good doctor. I was concerned that I had retinal detachment. That's pretty scary. Like going blind scary. After a complete exam, I was relieved when he told me that I had no signs of retinal detachment or any other serious eye disorder. Vitreous detachment is annoying, but does not require treatment. So, I am back to work on "The Tourist of Infinity", after having lost a week to unfounded anxiety.