WHY AUTHORS AUTHOR AND WRITERS WRITE
REFLECTING on my authoring career in during a recent interview, I was once again impressed with the chasm that exists between writing and authoring, one that took me thirty plus years to successfully bridge. And I wasn’t undecided; I knew I wanted to be an author from the start, having written my first novella at sixteen years of age. I sent my 100+ page (25,000+ word) sci-fi manuscript entitled “The Parabolic Curve” to seventy-five publishing houses. It never went to publication, though unbeknownst to me, at sixteen, I had enrolled in the Hard Knocks College of Authoring.
Plastering my bedroom wall with pink rejection slips (many were half-page in size and pink), I vowed to find a publisher who could value what I had to say. What followed were twenty challenging years of writing: poems and essays for college newspapers, magazines and yearbooks; articles for commercial magazines; opinion letters to newspapers; reports to technical and scientific journals; as well as hundreds of short stories for anthologies. During the course of my authoring “studies,” I slowly came to realize that authoring was much, much more than writing for a target audience. Authoring involves creating an author “personality,” establishing a voice on social media, garnering publications initially through self-publishing (a totally new concept in my time), then vanity publishing and finally finding a home with several traditional publishers. “Maturing” my writing included creating better narrative, and more distinct characters through dialog; effectively but appropriately dealing with major life issues like violence, violation, spirituality, romance, love and sex; learning to work with professional editors, proofreaders, publicity and marketing staff; becoming comfortable appearing publicly in association with my works — in short, acting like a professional author. Authoring these days continues to challenge me to author stories that are more complex, richer, bold and engaging.
So, why author my newest book, THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) by Raymond Gaynor? Because, in the end, irrespective of everything I’ve just said above, I am an author. I have something from my years of professional crafting and jack-of-all-trades “renaissance man” life experience that in my very bones begs to be told. These days I author with a purpose: to provide my readers with a mirror in which to see themselves and thereby help make better life choices. Every generation’s participants “writes a story” and collectively authored, they create a “generation genre.” Good or bad, happy or sad, each generation with the help of its authors sculpts out an iconic “meaning” for that particular generation in the ongoing story of humankind.
In THE EDGE OF MADNESS, author Raymond Gaynor “touches on many sensitive issues in our current world. From this perspective, the book is thought-provoking and invites us to see things in a different light. For example, NewAmericans promote an education system based on cooperation and critical thinking rather than individualism and competitiveness. Fascinated by the unique worldbuilding, I often…re-read…explanations about the technological wonders of the new world (‘ContraSpray,’ ‘Eugitors,’ ‘CandyShades,’ ‘CandyCable,’ ‘Forty-Seven Suits,’ ‘T-rips’). [Character] relationships often display an inherent eroticism. All in all…[a] novel for fans of post-apocalyptic fiction interested in social and political transformation, technological change, sexual awakening and spiritual development.”
The Edge of Madness
THE EDGE OF MADNESS by Raymond Gaynor -- $1.99 as a Kindle ebook through May 2021 is also available as a printed book; soon to become an audiobook read by Peter Pollock. Purchased for cinematic treatment by K. Simmons Productions.
Plastering my bedroom wall with pink rejection slips (many were half-page in size and pink), I vowed to find a publisher who could value what I had to say. What followed were twenty challenging years of writing: poems and essays for college newspapers, magazines and yearbooks; articles for commercial magazines; opinion letters to newspapers; reports to technical and scientific journals; as well as hundreds of short stories for anthologies. During the course of my authoring “studies,” I slowly came to realize that authoring was much, much more than writing for a target audience. Authoring involves creating an author “personality,” establishing a voice on social media, garnering publications initially through self-publishing (a totally new concept in my time), then vanity publishing and finally finding a home with several traditional publishers. “Maturing” my writing included creating better narrative, and more distinct characters through dialog; effectively but appropriately dealing with major life issues like violence, violation, spirituality, romance, love and sex; learning to work with professional editors, proofreaders, publicity and marketing staff; becoming comfortable appearing publicly in association with my works — in short, acting like a professional author. Authoring these days continues to challenge me to author stories that are more complex, richer, bold and engaging.
So, why author my newest book, THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) by Raymond Gaynor? Because, in the end, irrespective of everything I’ve just said above, I am an author. I have something from my years of professional crafting and jack-of-all-trades “renaissance man” life experience that in my very bones begs to be told. These days I author with a purpose: to provide my readers with a mirror in which to see themselves and thereby help make better life choices. Every generation’s participants “writes a story” and collectively authored, they create a “generation genre.” Good or bad, happy or sad, each generation with the help of its authors sculpts out an iconic “meaning” for that particular generation in the ongoing story of humankind.
In THE EDGE OF MADNESS, author Raymond Gaynor “touches on many sensitive issues in our current world. From this perspective, the book is thought-provoking and invites us to see things in a different light. For example, NewAmericans promote an education system based on cooperation and critical thinking rather than individualism and competitiveness. Fascinated by the unique worldbuilding, I often…re-read…explanations about the technological wonders of the new world (‘ContraSpray,’ ‘Eugitors,’ ‘CandyShades,’ ‘CandyCable,’ ‘Forty-Seven Suits,’ ‘T-rips’). [Character] relationships often display an inherent eroticism. All in all…[a] novel for fans of post-apocalyptic fiction interested in social and political transformation, technological change, sexual awakening and spiritual development.”
The Edge of Madness
THE EDGE OF MADNESS by Raymond Gaynor -- $1.99 as a Kindle ebook through May 2021 is also available as a printed book; soon to become an audiobook read by Peter Pollock. Purchased for cinematic treatment by K. Simmons Productions.
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