Victor D. López's Blog: Victor D. Lopez, page 82
February 17, 2014
Heroes Desconocidos — “Unsung Heroes” in Translation
The following is my preliminary effort at translating into Spanish part of my original poem, “Unsung Heroes” originally written in English. The original poem is the longest poem in my “Of Pain and Ecstasy” collection. The complete poem offers a glimpse of the lives of four of my personal unsung heroes, my grandparents Emilio, Remedios, Manuel, and Maria. My parents will be added to the poem in due course as their lives and courage also simultaneously fill me with enormous pride and shame at my many failings inspite of their lifetimes of example. The original English language version of the complete poem appears on other posts in my main blogs and elsewhere. No words could do their lives justice in any language, let alone my inarticulate efforts here.
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Héroes Desconocidos
Aunque estoy parado en los hombros de gigantes, no veo mucho más lejos que el puente de mi nariz.
La culpa es mía. La vergüenza es mía. Pues no soy digno de ustedes, mis queridos muertos.
Parte I – Emilio (abuelo materno)
Su crimen fue su inteligencia y su posesión de una conciencia social,
Que le hizo anhelar ver a su amada España permanecer libre y le impidió tolerar a fascistas.
No porto armas, aborrecía todo tipo de violencia. No incito la rebelión,
Aunque se rebeló contra los enemigos de la libertad nacionales y extranjeros.
Fue apasionadamente un idealista que, en un tiempo de oscuridad, se aferraba a la
Creencia en la perfectibilidad del espíritu humano. No pudo soportar las mentiras que los periódicos
Regionales llevaban diariamente y tradujo noticias de los periódicos estadounidenses y británicos sobre
La creciente tormenta, compartiendo la verdad libremente con todos los que le escuchaban.
Dio discursos y escribió discursos dados por otros en apoyo a un condenada República,
Derrumbándose bajo el peso de su propia incompetencia y corrupción.
Le avisaron amigos de su inminente arresto y le ofrecieron pasaje a Estados Unidos o a
Buenos Aires donde muchos de sus amigos ya habían encontrado refugio.
Pero no conseguirían pasaje para su esposa y nueve hijos, y se negó a abandonarlos a su suerte.
Ellos vinieron por usted, como siempre, en medio de la noche, esos cobardes con rostros severos
Escondidos detrás de ametralladoras. Le llevaron preso, no por la primera vez, al
Castillo de San Antón, una fortaleza en una bahía hermosa y tranquila, y lo transfirieron a otros calabozos.
Le arrancaron las uñas, una por una, y esos sus más tiernas caricias, mientras le pidieron nombres.
Lo que soportó, solo Dios lo sabe, mediante meses, y fue condenado a muerte como un traidor.
Le abrían fusilado en La Plaza de María Pita. Pero la República tenía amigos, hasta entre algunos oficiales
Fascistas, y uno de ellos le abrió la puerta de su celda en la víspera de su ejecución.
Había sido transferido al Castillo de San Antón a esperar su sentencia. No obstante de haber contraído
Tuberculosis entonces, sin embargo, según mi abuela, logro nadar de A Coruña a Sada a través de la
Bahía en una noche sin luna, a la seguridad en el hogar de otro patriota que arriesgo su vida y la de su
Familia para esconderle en su sótano y realizo un viaje de muchos kilómetros a pie para encontrar a su esposa.
Encontró su casa y le informo a su esposa del inesperado aplazamiento, y le pidió que enviara alguna
Ropa y zapatos para reemplazar sus trapos sucios. Su hija mayor, María, insistió en
Acompañar a ese honrado desconocido, llevando cuanta ropa, comida y afectos personales
Pudo rápidamente recoger para llevárselos, sin saber cuándo le podría volver a ver.
De vez en cuando acepto la hospitalidad de una noche de estancia en el desván o ático de un
Simpatizante republicano, los cuales no eran difíciles de encontrar en una Galicia
Ferozmente independiente bajo el yugo de uno de los suyos.
Pero sobre todo vivido en el bosque, con guerrilleros activos durante años.
Vivió con todas las comodidades de un animal cazado con otros que no cederían,
Cuyo mayor delito consistió en estar en el lado equivocado de una causa perdida.
Espero que le diese algo de consuelo el saber que estabas en el lado derecho de la historia.
No se lo dio a su esposa ni a sus nueve hijos.
Usted pagó muchos inimaginables sacrificios como penitencia por su conciencia.
Una vez al mes o más, después de pasado algún tiempo, visitó su esposa e hijos. Le introdujeron a los
Más pequeños como un tío que vivía lejos. No sabían ellos que el barbudo salvaje que pagaba estas
Visitas en media noche y se despedía antes de amanecer llevando puesta la ropa vieja y limpia de papa.
Los más mayores, María, Josefa, Juan y Toñita, todos aun en su adolescencia, les decían a los más
Pequeños que su “tío” portaba noticias de su padre. Los niños más jóvenes, aun vistiendo los mantos
Deshilachados de su inocencia, aceptaban esto, sin preguntar por qué se quedaba en el cuarto de
Mamá toda la noche y se marchaba siempre antes que despertaran la mañana siguiente.
No puedo concebir la profundidad de su angustia en tener que interpretar el papel de un extraño en su
Propia casa, de no poder abrazar a sus hijos más pequeños quienes adoraba, para prevenir que los
Vecinos fascistas quienes trataban a menudo de adquirir informes de ellos con pasteles y dulces en
Tiempos de hambre, tratando de usar su inocencia como un arma contra usted.
Sus padres eran relativamente ricos empresarios que cultivan el mar pero lo desheredaron—
Tal vez por su forma de actuar, tal vez por elegir a emigrar, negándose a unirse a la empresa familiar o
Tal vez por casarse por amor en la ciudad de Nueva York con una joven sumamente trabajadora pero
De clase humilde y estación social inferior en los ojos de sus padres.
Vivió lo suficiente para ver el fin de la guerra civil, pero no a su amada España liberada de sus cadenas.
Falleció antes de sufrir las consecuencias de la guerra cuyo fin fue el preludio de
Décadas de cosechas de angustia y Amargura a quienes la sobrevivieron.
No se salvaron de esa cosecha su esposa y sus hijos.
No hay libros que graben su nombre. Casi todos quienes le conocieron están muertos.
No obstante, siete décadas después de su fallecimiento aun aparecen flores frescas en su nicho en el
Cementerio de Fontan que guarda sus cenizas y las de su hijo mayor, Juan y su hija,
Toñita, quienes murieron aún mucho más jóvenes que usted, a los 19 y 15 años.
También yacen allí las cenizas de su esposa, Remedios, donde el
Honor, la bondad, la decencia, y un Corazón puro y deshecho en su
Muy corta vida por un mundo muy poco merecedor de su
Presencia finalmente descansan en paz.
Are Writers Better Off Self-Publishing?
New authors often seek guidance on writers’ sites on whether one is better off self-publishing or going through a traditional publisher. For most new authors, the question is an academic one (whether they realize it or not) because most writers have a better chance of being struck by lightning than they do obtaining a book contract from a traditional publishing house (read: not a small press, vanity press by any other name, or print on demand publisher) for their first or second novel, and a greater chance of being struck by an asteroid than of obtaining a book contract for a poetry or short story collection. Most publishers no longer accept novel submissions from unagented authors, and agents are unlikely to take on an author on spec for a traditional royalty split contract of representation unless the author has either already established herself through past book sales or shows exceptional promise.
Nevertheless, some authors do face the happy choice of signing with a traditional publisher or going it alone. The question of whether independent authors are better off signing a contract with a traditional publisher or independently publish their work through a print-on-demand publisher like Create Space or a no-cost eBook publisher like Kindle Direct Publishing depends on a variety of factors, not least of which is whether the author is willing to make the marketing and promotion of their book(s) their full time job. The simple fact is that regardless of quality, books by unknown or little known authors will not sell in significant numbers without an effective (time consuming and often also expensive) marketing plan.
Of course there are always exceptions to the rule. Authors who write in narrow niche markets (erotica, zombie novels, etc.) may find a loyal following with little marketing efforts if they can develop a fan base that will seek out their work. Social media alone may work fairly well for these authors. Not so for the average novelist, poet or nonfiction author.
Authors who have not published through traditional channels may look with contempt at the typical contract offered by traditional publishers which are decidedly not author friendly, and scoff at the “low” royalty rates they offer. There is no question in my experience with both textbooks and trade books (Richard Irwin/Mirror Press/McGraw-Hill/Prentice Hall, McFarland & Co./Textbook Media Publishing), the contracts offered by traditional publishers are far more restrictive than POD and eBook publishers. There is no comparison. And the royalty rates are a fraction of those that indie authors can obtain through self-publishing.
Freedom comes at a very high price, however, and appearances can most decidedly be very deceptive. A relatively meager royalty of, say, 12.5 percent seems almost offensive when compared with a 70 percent share for a Kindle book in the $2.99 – $9.99 list price range. But comparing apples to rocks is not very helpful. Indie authors are left to their own devices in marketing their books and the overwhelming majority of self-published titles will simply not sell in any reasonable numbers without the author spending a great deal of time (and/or money) marketing and promoting each book.
As with any entrepreneurial venture involving legal substances, there is no magic formula other than hard work and a rational business plan. The New York Lottery promises that all you need is “a dollar and a dream.” Posting a self published book by a little known author on 20 sites (or 200 sites) is less likely to yield a satisfying result than playing Lotto.
The good news today is that everyone can be an author these days. The bad news is that getting people to actually buy what indie authors produce in significant numbers requires a great deal of hard work. That is why most rational authors jump at the chance to sign a 12.5 percent royalty contract with any of the traditional well-established houses that is about as friendly as the average unconditional surrender agreement. Yes some indie authors do sell an extraordinary number of books as indie publishers. And yes, some people who play the New York lottery do get rich too. Each has about the same odds of success in my view.
An indie author who sells well makes news. The millions of indie authors who post their books in multiple places and scratch their heads in wonder as to why no one finds or buys them (unless they give them away–and too often not even then) does not. The latter is in the decidedly “dog bites man” rather than “man bites dog” category and is no more newsworthy than the sun rising every morning in the East.
January 16, 2014
Mindscapes short story collection 60% off for three days only
The kindle version of my new short story collection is available at Amazon.com through January 18 for $1.99 – 60% off the regular $4.99 price. The book can be borrowed free of charge the next 90 days by Amazon prime members on their Kindles. A paperback version is also available, and an audiobook version is in production and will be available by June 2014 through Audible, iTunes and possibly Amazon. A description of the book from its Amazon.com page appears below:
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This book is a compilation of 10 science fiction and speculative fiction short stories by the author from his two previous short story collections, Book of Dreams and Book of Dreams 2nd Edition, as well as two new stories written in 2013. Its scope extends from the innermost dimensions of the mind to the outer reaches of the universe, focusing from diverse perspectives on some common themes as to the meaning of life, the superlative strength and wrenching weakness of the human spirit, the power of love and the exquisite pain and ecstasy that flesh is heir to in its perpetual struggle between the duality of human nature that reflected both the divine and the profane.
In very broad outline, the ten stories involve the following themes:
If necessity is the mother of invention, could humanity use present technology to find a way to propagate its seed when faced with the certainty of an extinction-level event in less than two years’ time?
What really caused the catastrophic failure after the first full-scale test of the Large Hadron Collider? Motivated, ingenious terrorists are about to try their own field experiment to replicate the classified results of the test on a large scale using two suitcase nukes and a modified jetliner in an attack that, if successful, will eradicate all life on earth, destroy our corner of the universe and, in time, give birth to a new addition to the multiverse.
If we could communicate with the other sentient, intelligent species with whom we share our planet, what vital lessons might we learn from them and they from us?
In a not too distant future in which all human beings on earth are connected and integrated into a single neural net, what price might be exacted for one wishing to opt out?
Egyptologists and historians have long debated the riddle of the Sphinx–its true origins, its too-small human head and the pharaoh it was intended to represent. What if the riddle could be revealed live, in prime time, to an attentive world-wide audience upon the excavation of a chamber buried stories beneath its right paw?
What price would you pay to revisit a crossroad in your life when you had made a terrible, life altering mistake? Would you give up an unfulfilled life for the chance of virtual happiness in an alternate reality?
Would you sacrifice everything if you could attain absolute knowledge? If so, could you live with the knowledge you attained?
It is said that no man is an island, but what if even the least among us is a god in his/her own right?
If an alien visitor offered you a lifetime of health and the gift of telepathy for a small service, would you be quick to accept?
If we purportedly use only a small fraction of our brain’s capacity, what possible purpose does the apparently unused portion serve?
Above are some of the questions raised in this collection of science fiction and speculative fiction short stories that explores the interrelationship between dreams and reality, the nature of reality itself, and the dangers attendant to the single-minded pursuit of wish fulfillment that all too often results in unexpected and unwanted consequences.
The author is an Associate Professor of Legal Studies at Hofstra University’s Frank G. Zarb School of Business and has previously published seven non-fiction books through traditional publishers. His business law and legal environment textbooks have been used in colleges and universities throughout the United States since 1993. He has also published a book of poems and the two previous noted books of short stories since 2011.
January 12, 2014
New short story collection to be released as audiobook in May 2014
The collection will be released through an exclusive agreement with ACX and its partnership with Amazon and Audible, and will be available through Audible, iTunes and Amazon. This is my first effort at having an audiobook produced. If it proves successful, I hope to follow up with audiobook versions of my poetry and perhaps an intellectual property book in its next expanded edition–a project I intend to work on next year, time permitting. A novel in its early stages still remains on the back burner for now.
For the time being, the short story collection is available in paperback and Kindle versions. A very rough, cold reading of one of the short stories in the collection is also available in a simple book trailer here. (If you listen to my reading, you will understand why I opted to have the book produced and read by a professional, Dale M. Wilcox, whose voice will breathe new life to my stories and is closer to the voice in my head as they originally flowed onto the page. Although I love to lecture, reading my own words is, well, a different matter altogether.)
http://www.amazon.com/Mindscapes-Scie...
January 8, 2014
New science fiction audiobook collection (forthcoming)
My newly released science fiction short story collection, Mindscapes, will be produced through ACX with a release date slated for May, 2014.
The collection will be released through an exclusive agreement with ACX and its partnership with Amazon and Audible, and will be available through Audible, iTunes and Amazon. This is my first effort at having an audiobook produced. If it proves successful, I hope to follow up with audiobook versions of my poetry and perhaps an intellectual property book in its next expanded edition–a project I intend to work on next year, time permitting. A novel in its early stages still remains on the back burner for now.
For the time being, the short story collection is available in paperback and Kindle versions. A very rough, cold reading of one of the short stories in the collection is also available in a simple book trailer here. (If you listen to my reading, you will understand why I opted to have the book produced and read by a professional, Dale M. Wilcox, whose voice will breathe new life to my stories and is closer to the voice in my head as they originally flowed onto the page. Although I love to lecture, reading my own words is, well, a different matter altogether.)
January 4, 2014
Now on paperback: Mindscapes — Ten Science Fiction and Speculative Fiction Short Stories
(For the Kindle version of this book and a preview, you can click here. For a book trailer with my unedited read of the shortest story in this collection, you can click here.)
This book is a compilation of 10 science fiction and speculative fiction short stories by the author from his two previous short story collections, Book of Dreams and Book of Dreams 2nd Edition, as well as two new stories written in 2013. Its scope extends from the innermost dimensions of the mind to the outer reaches of the universe, focusing from diverse perspectives on some common themes as to the meaning of life, the superlative strength and wrenching weakness of the human spirit, the power of love and the exquisite pain and ecstasy that flesh is heir to in its perpetual struggle between the duality of human nature that reflected both the divine and the profane.
In very broad outline, the ten stories involve the following themes:
If necessity is the mother of invention, could humanity use present technology to find a way to propagate its seed when faced with the certainty of an extinction-level event in less than two years’ time?
What really caused the catastrophic failure after the first full-scale test of the Large Hadron Collider? Motivated, ingenious terrorists are about to try their own field experiment to replicate the classified results of the test on a large scale using two suitcase nukes and a modified jetliner in an attack that, if successful, will eradicate all life on earth, destroy our corner of the universe and, in time, give birth to a new addition to the multiverse.
If we could communicate with the other sentient, intelligent species with whom we share our planet, what vital lessons might we learn from them and they from us?
In a not too distant future in which all human beings on earth are connected and integrated into a single neural net, what price might be exacted for one wishing to opt out?
Egyptologists and historians have long debated the riddle of the Sphinx–its true origins, its too-small human head and the pharaoh it was intended to represent. What if the riddle could be revealed live, in prime time, to an attentive world-wide audience upon the excavation of a chamber buried stories beneath its right paw?
What price would you pay to revisit a crossroad in your life when you had made a terrible, life altering mistake? Would you give up an unfulfilled life for the chance of virtual happiness in an alternate reality?
Would you sacrifice everything if you could attain absolute knowledge? If so, could you live with the knowledge you attained?
It is said that no man is an island, but what if even the least among us is a god in his/her own right?
If an alien visitor offered you a lifetime of health and the gift of telepathy for a small service, would you be quick to accept?
If we purportedly use only a small fraction of our brain’s capacity, what possible purpose does the apparently unused portion serve?
Above are some of the questions raised in this collection of science fiction and speculative fiction short stories that explores the interrelationship between dreams and reality, the nature of reality itself, and the dangers attendant to the single-minded pursuit of wish fulfillment that all too often results in unexpected and unwanted consequences.
The author is an Associate Professor of Legal Studies at Hofstra University’s Frank G. Zarb School of Business and has previously published seven non-fiction books through traditional publishers. His business law and legal environment textbooks have been used in colleges and universities throughout the United States since 1993. He has also published a book of poems and the two previous noted books of short stories since 2011.
For more information about the author’s books, textbooks, scholarly articles and blogs, you can visit http://www.victordlopez.com.
Publication Date: Jan 01 2014
ISBN/EAN13: 1494866528 / 9781494866525
Page Count: 182
Binding Type:US Trade Paper
Trim Size:6″ x 9″
Language:English
Color:Black and White
Related Categories:Fiction / Science Fiction / Short Stories
December 31, 2013
Mindscapes: Ten Science Fiction and Speculative Fiction Short Stories — Preview #2
When it became apparent that disaster could not be avoided and that long-term survival on Earth after the impact would be untenable, both private and public efforts were undertaken in every country to prepare for the end and to ensure that some aspect of humanity might be given a chance to survive. Governments mobilized to expand underground bunkers in an effort to extend life for at least the chosen few, as well as retain a record of humanity’s collective accomplishments in samples of its art, science, and literature. Hardened bunkers built to withstand nuclear strikes might survive the impact for the former players in the deadly game of mutual assured destruction. Existing facilities were expanded to the extent possible in the available time, and stocked with sufficient food, water and oxygen to permit a few thousand people to live underground for up to five years. Technology developed for space and for use in submarines, including air and water reclamation processes, hydroponics gardens growing genetically altered strains of fast-growing wheat and other grains, and small nuclear generators capable of providing the necessary energy to run the equipment that made a self-contained closed environment possible, were utilized and implemented with all due haste. In the U.S., military bunkers from the cold war era were reclaimed and new ones built with a total capacity to house perhaps 250,000 people. No attempt was made to make the selection process of the chosen few democratic or fair. There was not even the pretense of a lottery system that might buy the chance to cheat death for a lucky few. In the end, the survival of the species was of paramount importance and the decisions made were based on the criteria set by a civilian government backed by martial law. Other countries made similar preparations and, even in the poorest countries, some effort was made to provide the chance for survival to a select few. All of these efforts would be largely thwarted on the day of the impact, but they represented a brave effort nonetheless at avoiding defeatism and giving in to despair. Although the record must show that in the final days anarchy ruled the world, perhaps there is some comfort in knowing that humanity did not surrender to its fate or walk quietly into the night like sheep to the slaughter but met its fate fighting to the end for life.
[End on preview]
A book trailer for this short story collection that includes my unedited, “cold-reading” of the shortest story in the collection, “Justice”, is available here.
The excerpt above is from the book’s newest short story, “Mars: Genesis 2.0″ which is also available as a stand-alone Kindle story. (Click on the cover below for more information.)
December 27, 2013
Book Trailer for New SF Short Story Collection
Click on the book cover below for a YouTube book trailer that includes a reading of the short story “Justice” by the author. The book’s Amazon web page can be accessed here.
December 26, 2013
Mars: Genesis 2.0 [Brief preview #1 and link to book trailer]
Earth had not stood a chance. Careful tracking of the known asteroids and comets had accurately predicted some close calls from sizable rocks over the past several decades, and yielded some spectacular natural fireworks alongside some notable devastation at least twice in recent memory over the skies of modern Russia and of the former Soviet Union from lesser meteors that, without ever striking the ground, still managed to make their presence known as they exploded in the atmosphere, releasing energy equivalent to hundreds of Hiroshima-sized atomic bombs. But none of the previous devastation wreaked on a defenseless planet by sizeable asteroids in the past, including the one that erased the dinosaurs from the Earth and paved the way for the eventual ascent of homo sapiens, could compare to the 113-mile diameter spherical asteroid that struck the Earth on Sunday, July 19, 2020 in Tierra del Fuego, at the Southern-most tip of South America. The resulting devastation was complete. Within weeks, nearly all life on the face of the Earth was extinguished as the force of the primary explosion and the dozens of smaller impact zones from fragments of the asteroid that broke apart from the heat of entry. These secondary strikes ranged over a wide swath of the globe as far as Australia, while numerous fragments exploded in the atmosphere before ever touching the ground. Within weeks of the impact, the devastation wrought by out of control fires, tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and the sudden melting of a significant portion of the South Pole’s icecap foretold of the eventual extinction of all life on Earth. There had been notice, of course—666 days of it, to be precise, a number that fueled an endless stream of debate, devotion, and gave birth to more than a few doomsday cults. Armageddon was duly delivered on time by a massive asteroid carrying the number of the beast. Pluto may have been demoted to a planetoid, but the ancient god of the underworld got the last laugh and the benefit of the bargain as he received six plus billion new souls from a once verdant world bludgeoned into a massive extinction event by an errant rock. The nearly two years of warning were insufficient to avert disaster. Earth simply did not have the technology to destroy or deflect a 113-mile-wide planetoid moving towards it at an orbital velocity of 20 kilometers per second on a previously undiscovered elliptical orbit around the sun that took it into the Kuiper belt beyond Neptune’s orbit. It might have been kinder had humanity been spared the precise date and modality of its demise. But there was no way to hide the truth once it became apparent, and no way to spare the aftermath of that truth or the lawlessness that resulted from the communal despair of people given a death sentence without hope of reprieve. Suffice it to say that humanity’s last two years were not on balance proud ones for a species performing its swan song. If this was, as some claimed, God’s wrath visited upon an unrepentant creation that had learned little from the lessons of the great flood, humanity certainly gave little evidence of being undeserving of the punishment in the months leading to the end. [End on preview] At present, I have a call for auditions from voice talent/producers through ACX to release the book as an audiobook through the Audible/Amazon partnership. In the meantime, anyone interested in previewing a very rough cold read of my interpretation of the shortest story in this collection, “Justice”, can hear the YouTube book trailer with my reading of the complete story here.
December 22, 2013
Holiday Promotion: Save up to 79% on Intellectual Property Law: A Practical Guide to Copyrights, Patents, Trademarks and Trade Secrets [Kindle Edition]
From the book’s Amazon page:
Book Description
Publication Date: December 8, 2013
This book is intended as both a primer on intellectual property law and as a general reference for authors, artists, musicians, librarians, entrepreneurs and others interested in learning about intellectual property law and the processes for obtaining copyrights, trademarks and patents in the U.S. and through international agreements.
The main text provides a brief orientation on the relevant law and on the process and cost of applying for patents and trademarks through the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and copyrights through the U.S. Copyright Office. In order to make this book as useful as possible as a one-stop reference resource, I have collected and included selective statutory materials, sample forms, and other useful resources in appendices to provide greater depth and context for the material presented in the main text.
This book is intended as a general reference guide that will provide you with timely, useful information and direct you to additional sources of information both in its comprehensive appendices and online that are available free of charge from a variety of sources. It does not offer legal advice. Only an attorney can provide you with legal advice tailored to your specific needs, and neither this book nor any of the self-help guides or readily available document preparation services is a substitute for the advice of an experienced lawyer.
For an extended free preview of the book, you can visit the book’s Amazon page by clicking on the book’s cover below and then click on “Click to look inside.”
Victor D. Lopez
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