Herds Redux

I've been spending the last few days proofreading an old novel of mine, Herds. In fact, it's my oldest novel, the first one I ever published.

(Not the first one I ever wrote, however. That one will probably never see the light of day. Literally. The manuscript is sitting in a box in a storage unit, and I'm not even sure I could lay hands on it, even if I wanted to. I think it's just to the left of the Lost Ark.)

It was published back in 1975, long before I even thought of having a computer. When I decided to publish some of my backlist as ebooks, I dug out the manuscript for Herds and scanned it in. I ran a spell check on it to make sure there were no embarrassing flaws, and then converted it to proper format.

A little while ago, though, I got a letter from a reader complaining about the state of the book.  It seems the scan of the yellowing manuscript had played havoc with the punctuation, and there were some errors a spellchecker wouldn't catch ("feet" instead of "feel", for instance). So this week I actually bit the bullet and read the book.

I was prepared to be totally embarrassed by something I wrote nearly 30 years ago, and on that score I was pleasantly surprised. Yes, there were some things that I went into way too much detail on, some things I treated way too simplistically, and I overlooked a number of other things out of ignorance. As a big fan of CSI, my forensic details left a lot to be desired--but DNA wasn't part of a forensic toolkit back then, either. And I did tackle some ethical issues I'm rather proud I thought of. So, on the whole, it wasn't as bad an experience as I'd feared.

I'm also trying an experiment. I've lowered the price on some of my self-published ebooks (Herds included) to $1.99 on the recommendation of another author who credits pricing as a key to success. We'll see if that has any effect. The ebooks with reduced pricing include Herds, Caravan, Alien Murders and several others.

"Would You Look At My Novel?", Part Deux

One of the most awkward instances of this phenomenon occurred a number of years ago. At the time, my congressional district was represented by a very powerful, very corrupt Republican. Because he was so entrenched, and a committee chairman, the Democrats didn't even bother putting up a candidate in the primary election for that position. A very nice guy in the district--with a graduate degree in mathematics and a career in wind power technology--decided this was wrong, and wanted to run against him...but the filing date for the primary had already passed, so he had to conduct a write-in campaign. Our district covers parts of 3 counties, and at the first results he apparently didn't get enough votes to get on the November ballot. He challenged the count in all 3 counties, and ended up making it.

I hadn't heard of him before, but I read about this in the paper and admired him enough to want to help. I met him and found him to be an intelligent, earnest and dedicated man. When he learned I was a writer, he hesitantly asked me to look at his novel and...well, wanting to do something for this nice guy, I agreed.

I only got about 1 chapter into it. It as not well written, it scattered all over the place, it lacked focus. Fortunately for me, I never had to tell him this. He got caught up in the election, and he never had the time to get back to me.

He lost the general election--but with no real party backing, no funds, no strong organization, running in a conservative district, he still polled 39% The Democratic Party sat up and took notice.

I fell out of touch with him and moved. My new residence is now just over the line in another district.

Two years later, the guy ran again. This time, with better funding, better organization, full Democratic support, and the endorsement of a former Republican congressman who was disgusted by the incumbent's blatant corruption, he actually won by a comfortable margin. The incumbent was the only committee chairman to get knocked off. My man is now in his 3rd term despite being #3 on Karl Rove's hit list and the target of some vicious Republican smear tactics and name-calling. He's the only mathematician in Congress, and someone with actual hands-on experience in the recyclable energy field.

I'm very glad he's there...and just as glad that the time-consuming duties of a diligent Congressman keep him away from writing any more novels.

"Would You Look At My Novel?"

Six words calculated to strike terror in a writer's heart.

This was brought to mind last night as I watched an episode of Medium, one of my guilty pleasures. The boss of the heroine's husband asked the husband to look over his 900+ page manuscript and let him know his honest opinion, holding nothing back. Even though the husband wasn't a writer, metaphorical alarm bells went off in his head--as well they should.

Every writer gets asked for this "favor" now and then, and there are few gracious ways out of it. With a total stranger, you can always try the excuse that you're too busy--but the closer the person is to you, the harder it is to turn them down. And you know going in that this is a losing proposition, because the odds are vastly in favor of the book being terrible. And the louder the person insists you should be candid and brutal, the more they're expecting you to shower them with praise.

There's no good answer. They'll either get their feelings hurt or, if you're really unlucky, they'll play the game I call Yes-But. "Your hero is unlikable," I say. "Yes, but I'm trying to make him an anti-hero."..."I don't believe these relationships." "Yes, but I'm trying to show how dysfunctional they are."..."You can't write a coherent English sentence." "Yes, but I'm experimenting with a new prose style."


I've opted to give people what they say they want--brutal honesty. The writing biz is tough, and they'd better learn it as quickly as possible. Famed writer/director Joshua Logan once said, "It anything can dissuade you from a career in the theater, let it." The same applies to writing.

Better Late Than Never

Because my eyesight is deteriorating, I don't actually read books much any more. Instead, I'm learning the joys of audiobooks--and fortunately my county library system has a good collection.

As a result, I just finished The daVinci Code. I'd seen the movie, so the surprise twist wasn't a surprise to me. The movie wasn't as comprehensible as it should have been, either, because my eyesight doesn't do well with subtitles--but so much of the book was told in exposition and flashback that no movie could have done it justice.

I found the book well-told and thoroughly enjoyable. As an atheist, I couldn't help liking the mocking of religion, too. I'm often leery of best-sellers, but this one truly deserved all the success it got. I never get mad when a good writer succeeds.

(One interesting thing on the audiobook version. The actor doing the narration did the voice of the British Grail scholar as a perfect rendition of Peter O'Toole--although the way the character is described physically is a lot more like Robert Morley.)

Name Change

It’s oft been said it’s a woman’s prerogative to change her mind. Since I’m a firm believer in equality of the sexes, that makes it a man’s prerogative, too.

So…I’m changing the name of my new blog to The Ingesterie, after the restaurant/bar where Jade Darcy works as a bouncer (although I hope I won’t need her special skills to maintain order here). I hope it becomes as popular a meeting place as the Ingesterie on Cablans is.

A Renaissance Spring

I feel almost like things are exploding, and new possibilities  can be found under every bush. Some of the things that have been happening so far::

• I published all 10 books in my "Agents of ISIS" space opera decalogy as ebooks. I'm even getting some good feedback on them.
• I finished the major update/revision of my most important stand-alone sf book, The Eternity Brigade. The new edition is now available in trade paperback format.
• 18 of my ebook titles were available in Apple's iBookstore by April 3, in time for the premiere of the new iPad. I've since added a 19th title.  All those proud new iPad owners now have access to my books.
• I published Angel in Black as an ebook, a collection of 5 of my hard-to-find fantasy short stories.
• The first 2 books of my Arabian Nights-style fantasy Parsina Saga--Shrine of the Desert Mage and The Storyteller and the Jann--have just been issued as trade paperbacks.

 

 And that's not all. Coming up in the next few months:

• The new version of The Eternity Brigade will shortly be released in ebook formats as well.
• The remaining 2 volumes of the Parsina Saga--Crystals of Air and Water and Treachery of the Demon King--will also be released in trade paperback in May. This will be the first time all 4 volumes will be available in uniform paper editions at the same time.
• Two of my earlier novels--And Not Make Dreams Your Master and Crossroads of the Galaxy--will be reissued this spring by Midnight Showcase Fiction.
• Parsina Press will start issuing the Agents of ISIS books in trade paperback editions, probably 2 per month until they're all available

And who know what other surprises may wait in store. Please stay tuned.