Project Update

Well, June comes to a close, quicker than I expected. The girls have already been out of school nearly two weeks and now go daily to their day camp. We’ve spent weekends at Pennsylvania and down in Washington DC. Day trips to the park and zoo. Saw a Yankee game. Ran the sprinklers and filled the backyard kiddie pool. Summer stuff. 

I’ve maintained an upbeat frame of mind over the past six weeks of unemployment. My resume has been professionally updated and I’ve applied to nearly 20 places and have only received two outright rejections. Physically I’ve been walking a mile or two and lifting weights just about every day without fail. Rising at six every morning. No booze, and keeping those pints of ice cream to a bare minimum (like celebrating Little One’s grammar school graduation). And when it comes to my great nemesis, that demonic pairing of pizza and Diet Coke, just once this summer. Once.

Now, how’s that writing project coming?

On schedule. My goal is to self-publish my best novel by September. To do that I need to build a writing platform, which comprises all my social media accounts and an author website. I also need to polish the novel to perfection as well as research what needs to be done and how exactly to go about doing it.

I’ve spent a little over 80 hours doing so, to date.

The “galley” phase of the novel is almost finished. After that I have another novel, a novella, and then four lengthy short stories I want to compile into one single work. I plan on releasing a work every three months or so. When a year is up, I’ll have the novel I currently have in limbo finished and ready to go.

The author website is generally sketched out; four or five more hours to get it to perfection. Then I have to research the best web hosting company for my needs. Register my URL. Get a professional picture done (and apply that all my social media outlets). Plan out some blog posts, start a mailing list.

As far as releasing the novel, I still need to research which form would best suit me for my genre and my economic situation. Nook, Kindle, iBooks, or POD (print-on-demand). Or something else? Still sketchy on many of those details. I have websites of writers who are currently doing what I want to do, so I need to research them, analyze what they’re doing, research the companies that publish these forms (i.e., B&N, Amazon), find out startup costs and formats, etc. I will probably spend the majority of July on this.

Then there’s marketing. Need to expand my contacts and acquaintances. Have a few ideas how to do this. For example, I want to give away something on my website for those who sign on to the mailing list. I also need to become more active on appropriate bulletin boards and forums (fora?). The one forum I was active on a few years back I’ve been quite dormant in recent months. Get business cards printed up. Etc.

Lots of things to do, but this project is keeping me sane during my bout of unemployment. Keeps me from feeling worthless – no, better yet, gives me a sense of power, a sense of taking my future and my destiny in my own hands. It’s a great and still unused-to feeling. As long as I keep on track, put in my 2-3 hours a day (in addition to hunting for that 9-5 job and taking care of the little ones), I should hit my goal of going live in September.

I’ve burned through two thick books on the topic of self-publishing (750+ pages), spent 20 or 30 hours reading online articles on the topic, bought a brand new laptop (from some unexpected unused vacation time the ex-company graciously paid me), read lots and lots of psychological motivational stuff, found all the electronic copies of my novels and short stories (save one I’m still searching for – may have to retype a hardcopy on to my laptop), and am slowly reconciling myself to becoming an Author.

Next update: July 31, and hopefully I’ll be light years ahead of where I am now!

Book Review: Deathworld

© 1960 by Harry Harrison

Imagine a world with double the gravitational pull of Earth. Tilted crazily upon its axis like Uranus, unpredictable seasons and days wreak proverbial havoc upon the landscape. Storms, cyclones, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions can kill you, and if they don’t, the hundred degree daily swing in temperature can make you mighty uncomfortable. And just about every living thing, from the single-celled microbe to flying beasties of all shapes and sizes to burrowing plants with gaping maws, everything is out to bury you.

Welcome to Pyrrus, known to our hero, Jason dinAlt, as “Deathworld.”

In one of the fastest opening chapters I’ve read in a long time, Jason is given an offer he can’t refuse by Kerk, dictator-of-sorts ruling over the dwindling human population of Pyrrus. A high stakes gambler who has the unexpected perk slash job skill of possessing the psychic ability to influence the role of dice, dinAlt manages to score – at great risk to his life – a huge amount of dough for Kerk to bankroll a last-ditch cargo of weapons and ammo to keep life going a little longer on the Deathworld.

But as part of the bargain, Jason insists on tagging along.

Imagine daily life as a never-ending bunker assault. Running a foxhole trench to get to work. Kindergarten which focuses solely on self-defense and weapons handling. Such is the mindset of the Pyrran, and rightfully so. It seems as if the whole planet has consciously aligned itself to eradicate these human invaders (descendants, by the way, of a space freighter which crashed upon the world three centuries back).

Such is the riddle Jason sets upon himself to solve. Especially since, as a Pyrran newbie, he can barely carry his double-gee weight, and his stubbornness results in getting dangerous Kerk’s son killed. On the run on a world where his life expectancy should be measured in minutes, our hero finds unexpected help and is forced to use his gambling assets to save both the Pyrrans intent on killing him and the flora and fauna of a world intent on killing them all.

Was never a huge Harrison fan, though, as best I can recall, I never really read much of him growing up. However, this Deathworld novel is part of a 450-page paperback entitled Deathworld Trilogy, so I do intend on reading the two sequels. Probably will alternate them with the other handful of SF paperbacks on my desk awaiting a read. I also have another Harrison trilogy, To the Stars, consisting of a trio of early 80s novellas, which I just put into rotation and will probably get to this Fall.

Deathworld made me a Harrison fan. Grade: solid A.

Book Review: Lord of Light

© 1967 by Roger Zelazny

Mythology holds a special place in my heart, especially as a young science fiction obsessed lad all those years ago, and in due course I devoured my way through Greek, Norse, and even Egyptian mythology. An uncle gave me a tattered paperback of Edith Hamilton’s Mythology, and if only he knew how high he grew in my esteem over that simple act. In fourth grade I loved writing a three page report on Poseidon (lost two points for writing “The End” at the end of it). Watching those Thor animated comics with my pals in the late 70s on channel 11 kindled an interest in Asgaard, frost giants, and great big wooden trees of life.

So it should come as no surprise that my focus would turn eventually to the Hindu pantheon.

Now, I mean this with absolutely no disrespect, coming at it from a Western, steeped-in-monotheism point of view, the Hindu belief system always struck me more literary and mythological, with a great big dose of philosophy tossed in, than theological. In the mid-90s, during my searching-for-meaning phase, I did spend a month or so investigating Hinduism. Now, it wasn’t a spiritual fit for me, but I did have my first introduction to Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, and the whole host of lesser deities and their avatars. Fascinating stuff.

In the summer of 2000 I first read Roger Zelazny’s Lord of Light, and was overwhelmed. Amazed and overwhelmed. Fifteen years would have to go by before I cracked it a second time.

I love just about everything about this novel, now that I understand it. Of course, it did take a second reading plus another refresher course in Hindu theogony, but I don’t believe that’s necessary for one to appreciate the Hugo Award-winning novel.

Zelazny deliberately keeps the premise vague (so we can’t really label the book definitively SF or definitively fantasy), but you can pick up bits and pieces from what the characters say to each other. Apparently, some time in the distant past, a spaceship crashed on an unknown planet. The survivors of the crew used the technology available to them (and later seriously expanded upon) to become gods. Hindu gods, specifically, with special powers, such as the ability to spew fire that can burn anything, a “death stare,” the ability to cause darkness, the ability to cause illusion, and much more. They also developed the wherewithal to transmigrate souls, and thus the whole Wheel of Birth and Rebirth is created. The passengers on the ship, it is hinted at (or at least I picked up on), become the population ruled by these gods, and the gods in turn, to keep their supremacy, crack down on any technological advance among the people, be it printing presses or indoor plumbing. Oh, and the natives on this world, energy-like beings, are “bound” and referred to as “demons.”

Now the monkey wrench in the plans of the gods: Sam. Mahasamatman, “Great Souled Sam” if you having a passing familiarity with Sanskrit. Originally a member of that crew so many millennia ago, Sam has come to the realization that the “gods” are a curse upon the planet and the population, and decides to go to war against them. Incarnating as the Buddha, Sam, the “Lord of Light” leads a revolt against the gods, enlisting the aid of the demons and the ever-shifting allegiances of other deities such as Yama and Kali. Though his revolution never quite succeeds as planned (or revealed to the reader), it might possibly succeed if said reader has the patience and has paid enough attention to decipher the tale.

It ain’t an easy book, and does require some cooperation from the guy turning the pages. It did take me two go-throughs, but it was well worth it. The chronology may throw you. The novel consists of seven parts, and I believe Part One fits chronologically between Parts Six and Seven, though it may require a third read to determine that for certain. I was like, why is this guy risking his life to help Sam and then for no reason trying to kill him? Ohhh.

Zelazny is a great teller of tales when he wants to be, and here is he definitely at his best. The images, the backstories, the dialogue – all fantastic, all worth the price of admission a dozen times over. The ideas, the part of a novel I like best, are there in plentitude and fruitfulness. The SF stuff aside, I liked the idea that an antagonist who appears later in the story is actually a Christian chaplain from the original crew. Wow! What are the repercussions of that? Something I wished the author explored a little further. Or again, maybe the next time I crack Lord of Light the answers will be there.

I’ve been reading Roger Zelazny off and on since I was a kid and tackled To Die in Italbar. This Immortal was my Best Read of 2010. Even his mediocre stuff is better than the majority of stuff out there. Lord of Light is a keeper and I think I’ll re-read it sometime around 2030, the Trimurti willing.

Grade: Solid A.