V.A. Jeffrey's Blog, page 6

What happened to the fun in science fiction?

60's Slingers by Jason Weidel

 This is a question I've been asking myself for a few years now. I'm tired of depressing, nihilistic science fiction stories and I know I'm not the only one. Even for those who may enjoy the current offerings that pass for science fiction they may be looking for a wider variety. Where is that variety? Sadly, it's disappeared.

It's very much related to another question I've asked about certain styles of music - hip hop and rap. As I grow older I've found that I no longer listen to much of it but the question is asked because it has changed drastically and not for the better: whatever happened to the fun in hip hop and rap? It's become dull, stupid, repetitive trash only concerned with money, cars and hoes.

It's become painfully dark and nihilistic. No thanks. personally, I find nihilism to be a poisonous way of thinking.

Science fiction has gone down the same sad path and while I've heard the various arguments for why science fiction has forsaken its pulpy roots, bold adventures and heroes and positive look at science and humanity's future (some of them make very good sense), I find that often times those of us who write stories for others to read have a deep influence on people's attitudes and thinking and on the larger culture, whether we want to admit it or not. It's the same with any artistic endeavor. You do influence others with your work and it can be profound. So, the kind of work you create and put out there becomes important.

I'm not saying that people should censor themselves. If one wants to write only dystopian, nihilistic sci-fi, go ahead. I have no interest in stopping them. But where are the writers who are tired of reading stuff like that? Where are those who have become tired of the mundane?  Science fiction has forgotten its bold roots and those of us who want to see more positive science fiction are being under-served. I myself am a science fiction writer and I write fiction that has a more positive view of humanity and the future. I suppose it has to do with my own philosophical beliefs. I believe that things will certainly become much darker, but then they will  eventually get much better for humanity. This is reflected in my work. Some people believe that humanity will eventually find its way out of the morass, others, like me, believe God will eventually solve the issues. Regardless of the belief system, there's a positive end as the result.

Perhaps some of this is nostalgia ( I see nothing wrong with that) but entertainment doesn't just reflect society and its ills, it also reinforces them when it simply follows the downward path seen in society. If you want to change something, you can't simply reflect what you see. That's a lazy form of creative endeavor. You have to reach out for something better. You have to take action to create a vision of your own. Just like old school fantasy where there are clear delineations between good and evil, a vision that usually leads to a positive end, which is the sort of fantasy I usually prefer, writers who aren't interested in the mundane or the nihilistic need to put our own brighter visions out there. We need to impact and influence the genre with a new chorus of positive voices. There's no real vision anymore, no wonder. Reality has let us know that Mars and Venus and other planets are hostile. but there is nothing more magnificent than the human mind when it needs to solve problems. The hostile conditions on these planets shouldn't stop science fiction. After all, it's FICTION, not reality. Fiction often times influences the real world. Why has this stopped? It's become the other way around and I find this has deadened writers' imaginations. That should never be!

Untitled, by Mark Covell

Right now there is only one chorus and it is sounding the death knell of the human race. If the agents and publishers are the problem, if they won't publish old school sci-fi then self -publish it, so readers who want these kinds of stories can be served well.

I have readers who tell me they enjoy my Mission series because it reminds them of the old school stuff they read as kids. That old school stuff is still good reading, in my opinion. It's one of the reasons so many people, like me, love Star Wars!  It doesn't have to be completely retrofitted sci-fi that doesn't take into account the issues people face today. Of course, it will take on the modern times we live in. I'm not calling for hunky-dory stories (The Dune series by Frank Herbert is a prime example of serious science fiction that is anything but happy-go-lucky. It's cynical, but the wonder in the storytelling is still there) but must everything be dismal and dark? Where's the vision? Where's the wonder and imagination? Where are the movers and shakers to shake us up out of our nihilistic stupor? Those readers are out there. Let's stop ignoring them.

New book cover reveal!

Here's the new book cover for Mission: Harbeasts of Mars! Courtesy of Streetlight Graphics! Harbeasts fo Mars should be out in early June! Look for it next week!

Starting a new space opera series this summer!

I'll be working on a new space opera series this summer. The protagonist in this new series will be a woman. It will have a different tone than the Mission series but it will certainly not be anything like mundane or nihilist science fiction. Let's get that straight!

I've got some great ideas for this new series and I'm very excited about it. Meanwhile,  The fifth book in my current series, Mission: Blackguard Conspiracy will be out in the Fall of 2015. Harbeasts of Mars is almost done. I'm near the last editing stages and I'm just waiting on the artwork for the book cover.

Patience, please!

I'll be publishing Mission: Harbeasts of Mars in a few weeks. But I feel that I need to address something. I've gotten quite a few reviews for the first Mission books, most good, some bad. That's how it goes. But from what I've read, many complain of bad grammar. I get the feeling that it has a lot to do with my protagonist's way of speaking and thinking.

Bob Astor, the main protagonist in the series doesn't use perfect grammar. Sometimes it's just plain bad. I've written him that way on purpose. He's  a very laid-back kind of guy. His grammar isn't always correct and that's by design. It's to make him more approachable and realistic as a character. In fact, most people I know don't use perfect grammar, quite a few don't use good grammar at all, and so I'm feeling as if this lends flavor to the stories that some readers don't quite get.

He's patterned off John Carter, whose language is articulate and beautiful to my eyes and ears but stilted and staid in the minds of many modern readers, which saddens me. I've read many reviews where readers lambasted the dead author for writing in what was a natural way in his day. I thought about using this style of speaking for my character but decided that it was out of place. I suppose I went in the opposite direction, but I did it knowing exactly what I was doing. It has nothing to do with incompetence.

I'm going through this book one last time to see if I can catch any more errors but I really feel that the majority of these complaints have issues with things that I put in the books by design, barring any spelling errors,  (I have found quite a few words that I thought should be separated or hyphenated that actually shouldn't! I'm correcting those)

 

Mission: Harbeasts of Mars - Sample Chapter!

Well, I'm back from my trip to Europe - a fine trip if I do say so and now I'm back at work writing. I have the first sample chapter up here on the blog. If you want more than one sample chapter, join the mailing list! This is chapter one, by the way.

Our intrepid hero finds himself lost and stranded out in the desert.

 

1

Dawn's light limned mountains in rust orange and red hues. All around I was engulfed in seas of blood sand and regolith. Dark reddish variegated landscape of desert stretched out into infinity at every point around me, and me, a singular point, a speck of flesh and blood in a bloody looking land. I didn't see any sign of the harbeasts even though I'd just heard them a few minutes ago. I did have my guns with me and that was some small comfort.

But guns did nothing to relieve thirst and my fear of dying from lack of water out here before I could reach a station started to weigh on my mind.

My helmet's compass skewed and buzzed for a few seconds and then restarted its systems. I waited in anxious patience, listening out for the fearful roaring of those engineered big cats again. Finally, after righting itself I could read it properly. I needed to head north.

Heading north.

The overlay map in my helmet was still showing signs of slight malfunction with corrupted characters and images that would skew and fade out. I banged my helmet, as that was the only thing I could think of to deal with the issue out in the open hostile Martian air. Also I did so out of nervous frustration. It stopped misbehaving and malfunctioning, for the time being. It also indicated that the nearest way-station, or any sort of civilization for that matter was about seven days away, traveling on foot. I had no idea if I would be able to hold out that long without food and water. I'd had several moisture pills, along with a small meal pellet last night, which could help stave off the dangerous symptoms of dehydration and starvation as they also contained minerals and other minute elements of protein to keep death at bay, for a time. But moisture pills were no miracle nor a match for too many days in the Martian desert without more nutrition and at some point I knew that if I didn't keep a steady pace or find someone willing to help me before then, I would be in dire trouble.

Ahead in the distance directly in front of me I saw what seemed a small group of rocky foothills. I'd heard before that there were often criminal and political asylum hideouts hidden in these kinds of places. That was just as deadly as being stranded in the desert alone. Hideouts were usually the domain of dangerous folk. Perhaps enemies of the human race. But I couldn't afford to dwell on such thoughts now so I quickened my pace toward the hills. I had to make short, reachable goals and I'd decided that this was my first one. Just make it to the hills, man.

During my hike I kept looking back and checking my helmet. The helmet's view-screen processes were not working at optimal capacity and were putting most of its energy toward the breathing and air filtration processes, so I couldn't detect any living creatures through the sand. Strangely enough, I caught sight of a few bleached skeletons of unknown creatures and one from what looked like it may have been a Glia. It was startling to come upon. It's thin bone vertebrae protrusions in its back where the wings would have been formerly seemed to crumble into the air as I bypassed it.

The work of harbeasts, was my guess. Harbeasts, from my previous encounter with one seemed to blend in, in parts, with the surrounding environment. Very well engineered, if I had to say so. If they were there, and I knew they were, I couldn't detect them. The sneaky bastards were keeping their distance. Sure enough, as if to let me know that they were indeed present, I heard an aggressive roar from far off behind me. Far enough that I had time to get my weapons ready but close enough that I would never out run them to the hills if they decided to run me down.

They seemed intent on waiting, for some unknown reason. And I was hell bent on getting to what I saw as at least some scant protection in the foothills. Making my way for hours, striding through the sand I felt myself growing tired. I slowed down slightly and paced myself to conserve energy. Suddenly, I felt another presence approaching.. I whipped around, breathing hard, to see the form of one of the creatures striding casually after me. I would never out run it. It came to a halt as I did, turning around with my rifle in my hands, ready to fire. Was it toying with me? It's huge maw was open, baring obscenely long fangs, its red tongue lolling in and out of its mouth. There had to be another one around. I wondered if this was some ploy by the creatures to distract me with one at the front while another came at me from the rear. I whipped around in fear at the fleeting thought and then turned to see both creatures leaping toward me. The first one was almost upon me when I raised my rifle, aimed and fired. The harbeast, with lightening speed had swerved and flipped over in an arc, barely and gracefully missing my killing shot. It now stood boldly some yards away and stared me down. I aimed and fired a second shot. Only to find that the creature was now just out of shooting range. The other one it seemed had disappeared from my view like a phantom. Perhaps it was only a matter of minutes when I would feel its claws tearing into my suit, ripping into my skin underneath and ending it all. The beast strode proudly to the side, as if taunting me, all the while emitting a deep, menacing growl. Fiery nerve sparks of fear and excitement shot up and down my spine. Where was the other one?

We stood at length for what seemed an eternity, weighing each others circumstances, studying each other until to my left at the corner of my eye, against the hazy backdrop of the Tholis Elysium mountain range I finally caught the swift movement of the other beast stalking me but it was too far off to shoot down. The other one now sat on its haunches with its large, ringed tail curled around it like a cat in repose, the tail whipping out every few seconds, beating the sand in front of it. The beast had a tough hide that looked a mixture of lichenified rhinoceros armor and shaggy tufts of thick fur around its limbs and joints. It looked something like a cross between an African lion and a sabre-toothed tiger. Or a liger with huge protruding fangs and a hard tough exterior skin. A strange sight indeed and terrifying.

I moved backward my only safety and oasis, the hills. The harbeast in front of me didn't move as I expected it to, but merely watched me with its keen, fiery orange eyes in probable amusement, like a cat would watch a mouse who thinks itself escaping cruel death.

Except this mouse had two guns at his disposal. I watched for any signs from my helmet for the other creature farther out but it was not my main concern right now. Remembering an old story I'd read when I was young about a man who had gone through a portal and suddenly found himself on Mars and found through his own body mass on Earth that he could leap high into the air on Mars. In excitement at this sudden thought I turned in a flight of adrenaline rush and ran toward the hills, jumping and leaping up high in the air, buoyed by the thin atmosphere. While I didn't leap nearly as high as I would have liked to it was sufficient enough for me to get a far enough lead on my enemies. Behind me as I looked back I saw the creature now standing and waiting and I wondered why and then suddenly it roared bounded forward in great leaps. I made it to the foot of the hill rocks and aimed and fired again, a blaze of laser fire exploding that it early sent me reeling back but I held steady. This action only served the frustrate me as the creature seemed to know, preternaturally, when I would fire and where the aim might hit and it dashed off to the left and rolled backwards, just beyond the reach of my atomic rifle's range. I fired again quickly and could tell by the sound that the rifle was running down on low laser power. The energy from the laser fire exploded in a small boulder next to the harbeast, shearing off and exploding shards of rock out into the air. Dust settled down in fine, thin strands. Ragged from exertion, coughing and feeling a deep thirst for water rising, I slung my rifle upon my back and scrambled up the rocks. The rifle grew warm and I felt it vibrate through my back. I swung it around and looked down at its energy counter only to see that it had nearly run out of energy and needed charging up should I need to use it again. And I would need to use it again.

I saw the first beast circle round the base of the rock and then slip across eastward around the foothills. The second one, which to my eye now that I had climbed up high enough out of reach, was larger than the first with a grand mane around its head and I surmised it was the mate of the other. With growing fear and horror I saw the two then climb up the rocks, nearly nimble as mountain goats on the other side of the hill from me. I watched closely, not taking my eyes from them as they slipped into a small crevice. With my binoculars I could see movement of a small creature near the other two harbeasts. It was a cub. In fact, as I watched I saw that there were several cubs. This was a family of harbeasts and the parents were hunting for food for their young. I turned and climbed, stumbling along as fast as I could in the opposite direction. As I made my way up, scrabbling and struggling, I could feel the presence of something coming at me again. One of the beasts, the female I assumed was bounding after me after having checked on her young cubs. Nothing like a protective mother on the attack! Unfortunately, I found myself now an invader in their territory. If I hadn't known better I'd think I'd landed in an episode of Cosmic Geographic. But I had no intentions of being anyone's dinner.

She landed several yards away from me on a small, rocky plateau. She growled low and powerful, her teeth and terrible looking fangs bared. Saliva dripped from her mouth. Her eyes were orange slits now as she gathered her haunches ready to pounce and tear me apart. I could see the powerful muscles in her forelegs rippling through the skin armor and fur. I grabbed my rifle and looked around desperately for a hiding place. I had only a few more shots before the rifle would be rendered useless.

This time the rifle did not seem to give her pause at all. I leaped up onto a higher plateau, turned and fired. I hit a bolder at the edge of the plateau. Part of it cracked and slid off. The harbeast had nearly cleared the bolder but its hind leg caught on it and it slipped and fell along with the boulder. Even as she fell she twisted with the lethal grace of a cat in mid-air. I watched in fascination as she fell back toward the lower plateau. Again, she leaped in for the kill and had swiped her paw, her cruel claws extending out and barely missing the barrel of the rifle. While I'd pressed the trigger to kill the loss of energy caused the reaction time of the weapon to slow down considerably and what would have killed her had missed. However, the last, singing blast of the rifle threw me back and had blown another large piece from the boulder. I forced myself up and climbed farther, half leaping, half climbing until I reached a small cave. Thankfully, its opening was so small that only one person at a time could get through. I sat down with my guns in front of me. The atomic rifle was completely spent of energy and without an extra power supply it was only useful now as a stick or a makeshift bat as a weapon. But I still had my dragon left which I would need to use judiciously. I peered up at the orange sky and the shimmering white sun now low on the horizon, getting ready to set. I heard the bone chilling, full-throated roar of the female harbeast outside the cave and the answer from her mate farther away. And I wondered what to do next.

Humor of the Day

Well tomorrow I'm off to Vienna, Austria for fun, a relaxing vacation and research for my up coming mystery series. But here's my  offer for the old humor of the day thing I do here. Have fun, this kid sure did!

First Draft Finished!

I've had to back out of the scifi romance blog hop, I've got too many things going and  have to focus. :( maybe next time. however there is some good news! the first draft of Mission: Harbeasts of Mars is finally finished! Very happy about that.

Now that the manuscript in rough form is done. I will rest and prepare for my trip to Austria, and work on a few other projects - one  a new mystery series based in fin-de-siecle Austria. And You Drop Stardust is almost finished as well.

Sci-Fi Romance Station Blog-Hop, sample chapters and progress!

I'm planing a trip to Europe n April and I'll be dragging my new chromebook  there to write.

I've got a lot of things coming up one of them is the April Fool's Day Sci-Fi Romance Station blog- hop. Check back here for more news. It's a website that focuses on and supports authors who write sci-fi romance. I'm offering my sci-fi romance serial You Drop Stardust for the blog-hop and I will be narrating it and giving out audio book versions and ebooks versions of the story. In fact I now have three new episodes out and three more will be published by next weekend because it'll need to be ready before April.

As far as my latest work-in-progress it's coming along well and rather quickly. it should be ready for publication in May or June. Look for a sample chapter of Harbeasts of Mars next month. If you want to read more sample chapter, subscribe to the mailing list.

World War Kaiju Project By Josh Finney and Patrick McEvoy!

I’m a regular listener to the Adventures in Sci-Fi Publishing podcast and often I keep my ears alert for new books and projects that the Legendarium Media audience might find interesting. On one particular show, I first heard about the World War Kaiju graphic novel by Josh Finney and Patrick McEvoy. I wrote a short article about it some months ago. Patrick is the illustrator of World War Kaiju and Josh is the author. I got a chance to talk with Patrick and this time around we go more in depth about the project. I talk with Patrick about the ideas, the inspirations for the project, the sequel to World War Kaiju and what’s coming up next:

Victoria: I’m guessing that to put this project together you guys have studied a fair bit of history. I love the propaganda style comics and ads in the back of the book. What attracted you to this particular time period – the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s?

Patrick: I’m a big fan of that era in general. Some of my earliest adventures in reading fiction were the Doc Savage novels from the ’30s and ’40s, and Will Eisner’s “Spirit” strips (reprinted of course!) from the ’40’s. And in movies, the lovable giant monster and Kaiju films from the ’50s and ’60s, the Film Noir movies from the ’40’s and ’50s, and jazz-era movies from the war years.

All of this, plus comics from the Silver Age, formed a rich stew of love for that era within me. So obviously, when Josh came to me with a project from those time periods, I was ready to jump in feet-first.

Victoria: I first found out about World War Kaiju while listening to the Adventures in Sci-Fi Podcast. I believe it was a Kickstarter campaign. Do you guys plan to do another Kickstarter campaign?

Patrick: Yes! We plan to do a second volume of WWK in 2015, probably in the summer. Expect some really cool stuff! I’ve already completed the art for several pages from the script, and it’s heading in some fantastic directions.

Victoria: Where did the idea for combining your interest in old Japanese monster films and Cold War politics come from?

Patrick: Josh had the idea that the Kaiju movies of the 1950’s and ’60’s were metaphors for real-world fears of cold war and nuclear destruction (and later on things like the environment, overpopulation, etc). So why not come up with a world in which the metaphor was reality? It gave us a great excuse to postulate an alternate history where the points in time where we as a planet got lucky avoiding major wars all went wrong. And in the second volume you’ll get to see just how wrong they go.

 

Victoria: At the end of the book readers get a large hint that there’s going to be a sequel. What’s the sequel going to be about? Will we see the same characters? Will new characters be introduced?

Patrick: We’re going to keep going in the same timeline – still bouncing back and forth, but basically picking up right where we left off in the flashback story, going forward from the Formosa crisis of the mid 1950’s. Along the way we’ll be heading into the 1960’s and bringing in a lot of tropes from the “super spy” movies of that era.

Some of my favorite creature designs were not used in the first book, but we’ll be getting to plenty of those in book 2! You can see a lot of them on my Deviantart WWK gallery:http://patrickmcevoy.deviantart.com/gallery/30639956/World-War-Kaiju — I can’t wait to show some of these guys in action!

Victoria: The art work for the story is beautiful. I’ve also noticed what looks like two distinct styles in the book, the old golden age/silver age comic book look and a more sleek, modern graphic novel look. What made you decided to mix these two styles in the same book?

Patrick: Thank you! This seemed like a natural from the beginning, that my “normal” style (the painted look) would be used in the main storytelling sections, and that we’d switch to other styles as the story progressed, to show the passing of eras. Originally, Josh was thinking of bringing in different artists, but I really wanted the chance to do them myself.

You’ll see, among other things, homages to Al Williamson and Wally Wood (the “Jaws” scene), Steranko’s “My Love Story” issue (the Carl Sagan scene), Roger Dean (history of the Kaiju scene), and Joe Shuster (the Werner Von Braun comic strip). There’s even a WWK-universe version of a Picasso print on the wall in one scene, where he’s apparently decided to draw Kaiju instead of Don Quixote.

Victoria: I loved how the Roswell incident, something that has always interested me, was worked seamlessly into the storyline. While reading the story, there were times it reminded me of The X-Files and Fringe. The Martians were really weird, to say the least. What inspired these slick business salesmen Martians? Will the Roswell incident feature later in the series or was this just a small detail in the overall story line?

Patrick: I’m hoping to see more of the Martians in the future – they were a blast to draw with that “huxter” body language. Josh came up with that idea and when I first read the script I was definitely laughing out loud at my drawing table. There will be repercussions from that event, definitely.

Victoria: How did you guys meet and start collaborating together?

Patrick: We were both working with the comics publisher Archaia about five years back – Josh and Kat with their book Titanium Rain, and me (and writer David Rodriguez) working on Starkweather: Immortal. We got to know each other hanging out at the Archaia booths at various conventions. We became good friends and talked about doing projects together in the future.

Josh called when he thought I might be interested in designing some creatures for World War Kaiju; little did he suspect that I would insist on doing all the art! In fact, Josh insists that he had absolutely no hope that I’d want to get on board. So it was nice surprising him.

Victoria: What other projects besides do you guys have in the works besides the World War Kaiju series?

Patrick: Aside from some illustrations I’m doing for 01 Publishing’s Whispers from the Abyss prose anthologies, Josh and I are working on an H.P. Lovecraft-inspired series of stories, the first of which we hope to Kickstart early next year. It’s a horror/noir series that takes place in the post-war 1940’s with a very interesting hard-boiled character we came up with who can fit into a lot of Mythos-related situations.
We’ve finished a number of pages already, and I’m going to do it in a completely different visual style for me. You can see a preview of a two-page sequence here: http://patrickmcevoy.deviantart.com/art/Chase-scene-Pickman-s-Model-485948830

Victoria: I find a lot of great ideas in this story such as Kaiju’s that come from natural spontaneous generation and those that are created from man-made means. Also the Kaiju that was found frozen, a hold-over from the previous ice age. What other concepts or plot lines will be introduced in book two?

Patrick: I’ve already done a bunch of pages for book 2, including a Frank Miller-inspired black & white scene, and a massive sea battle between Tesladon and a Soviet Kaiju. Believe me, there’s a LOT of crazy stuff to come.

Victoria: Where can readers find both of you and your works? Websites? Social media sites? Any new videos or news for the upcoming book in the series to point readers to?

My main site: http://www.megaflowgraphics.com/
Deviantart: http://patrickmcevoy.deviantart.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/patrick.mcevoy.10

You can purchase the graphic novel World War Kaiju on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/World-War-Kaiju-Josh-Finney/dp/0983923035

New Episode of Other Worlds podcast out!

My host, Talkshoe seems to be acting wonky for the moment so I'm posting the new episodes here from Soundcloud. Have a listen and I hope you enjoy it!

Dust and Bones is a sci fi/weird short story of six men who come to Las Vegas to play a high stakes game of Bones. The winner instantly becomes very wealthy but the prize comes with a very unpleasant string attached.

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