Stupid Stuff I See On Facebook (Publishing Related)

Image via CrunchBase

OK. Its been awhile since I did a “Writing Post”. Writing about writing, is actually totally blah and writing about the politics of writing and modern publishing ends up like smashing one’s head into an iron wall. The headache is just not worth it.

But I came across this link (shared  by Goodereader) in my feed. It’s hard to tell if its supposed to be parody or not…

http://goodereader.com/blog/commentary/self-published-authors-are-destroying-literature/

WOW! The arrogance. I wonder if this person knows, they probably wouldn’t be writing for a website called Goodereader without self-published authors… Becuse the rise of Kindle (E.reading) went hand-in-hand with self-publishing.

It’s not the mainstream publishers who made the Kindle hot, it’s all those cheap reads put out by the illiterate rube authors this guy is bashing that lit the fuse. Had the mainline publishers got their way, they would have killed the Kindle. Ever look at the price difference between a NY published book and a ‘self-published’ book? The NY publishers want us addicted to paper. It’s why they jack up the price of an ebook compared to its hard copy… and mind you, the paper version is not cheap these days.

Look. I do this because I want to tell stories which mean something to ME. Sure I like selling books as well, but you might have noticed I really don’t go around shouting “buy my books”. I hardly, if ever go to writing groups/pages on Facebook though I’m part of many.

The only places I hawk myself are this blog, or Donna Yates Pinterest authors board. I also know some authors can be really gung-ho about pushing their wares – But that also applies to so-called “real” authors as well. I follow more than a few mainstream writers pages, they don’t mind plugging themselves.

I do wonder if this person who wrote this commentary for Goodereader has heard of Twilight, or its countless knockoffs? Junk like that fills bookstore shelves. I wouldn’t exactly call it ‘literature’ in the way this guy means the word. How is that not having an adverse effect on ‘literature’? If anything, mainstream junk like that does more to kill good writing than anything some mostly unknown writer publishing on Kindle or Smashwords does.

You know why? Recuse the publisher and agent handling the publishing of these many Twilight knockoffs are probably throwing some otherwise great books into the slush pile, for one reason only – The Twilight stuff is easier to sell. And the only people who can be blamed for that are those who consume it.

No one will ever turn back the clock – Mmm well maybe Iran, with an EMP blast. But short of that, places like Kindle and Smashwords are here to stay.

If you get annoyed at an author (and thats what they are) pushing themselves. Kindly ask them to maybe not be so aggressive. OR don’t follow them.

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I See I’m Not Going To Be Able To Write Until…

Two Klingon males and a female as they appear in the original television series episode “Day of the Dove”. The bronzed skin, facial hair, lack of ridged foreheads, and simple costumes are typical of The Original Series Klingons. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

 

 

I see I’m not going to be able to write until Star Trek Into Darkness premiers.

 

It’s not actually ‘writers block‘ as I know the basic plot and details of my three current writing projects. One of which is a freebie. Its more, my brain is so wrapped up in the puzzle, that is currently without a solution I find myself fixated on that… Alot…

 

Even Countdown To Darkness lacks context to understand what actually took place in the storyline, without answers provided in the movie itself. A genius bit of marketing there as it does not ruin the movie. Unlike the first countdown comics which illuminated Nero’s motives… We may, or may not of gotten that in these books. Only retrospect will provide context.

 

Also, the helmeted Klingon on the cover is probably Commander Kor. We know there are at least two Klingons with speaking roles and without helmets as well – With ridges.

 

Yeah this was a post about my writing… Sometimes my brain gets this way. Scattered and even though I know what I want to write, I just can’t get it down on paper.

 

 

 

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I Breath Life Into Thinking-Machines…

My children are not gears and sprockets, though each is calibrated precisely. I build them in different shapes, and ethnic varieties – Not that they share these human tribes DNA. Morningstars as you know, are not human. Yes, every model has its own skill sets which favor the disposition of that model’s physical and intellectual matrix. Even among clusters, no three are alike. Individualism persists, particular strengths will be greater or lesser than within a cluster. I’ve been asked how I create such diversity in my children. Its easy when I have my wife to help. The committee wonders why I spend so much time constructing distinctions? I’ll tell you why. For me this is an artistic affirmation. I breath life into thinking-machines.

– Dr. Turhan Korelia, Addressing GenKon INC. Board Of Directors

Epigraph from my new writing project, a spotlight story which follows  “Among Bright Stars…“. It takes place a few months after book 2 and is meant to be another soft entry point for readers who might not have read books one or two. That is, you won’t need to know anything about either book to enjoy “November and Zeus“.

 

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Just Some Technobabble…

A thing of elegance, an Abraxas Coil remained unchanged since Dr. Zuleika Mathews originally flipped the switch which heralded forth The Singularity. Twisted in a silver helix, it hummed a pleasant ring, pure energy pulled from the vacuum vibrated blue in the small tubular structure that housed the coil and dispersed it throughout the battleship by means of crystalline conduits. “As you know the Destroyer’s main power plant is of course an Abraxas Coil.”

Thoughtfully Sharr nodded while he listened to the Grand Admiral explain the technical details. He wished Kvaltar were here. Vron knew how to simplify such technological jargon, and not make you feel like you needed a hundred PhDs to follow the discussion. Krag tended to go on and on, over fascinated by the minutiae. That is, Arodsur Krag would be you’re typical geek. However the Shotar recognized the awesome nature of this technology. Honestly, this battleship and what it represented awed him. It was a thing of beauty and raw power.

“This!” Exclaimed Arodsur. “Is the main drive,” a big grin filled his face. “Our organic Zebulon furnace provides primary rocket thrust at a high performance, self-sustained burn.” The Zebulon furnace churned and its motion produced the fire that would drive the battleship forward. Everyone in the engine room couldn’t help but be impressed by the thing. “The Zebulon furnace is much more efficient compared to the Imperium’s ion drives, a unique innovation to be sure my Shotar.”

Sharr nodded with expected awe, and intently stroked his goatee. Indeed he realized the innovation with these organic furnaces. They now had but to find an organic solution to the hrisanar problem and thus eliminate the need to mine the mineral. If they could do that their Gravitic Fold-Drive would be the finest to be had on Earth. Falcanian science had taken leaps and bounds ahead of humanity, almost as if another outside force drove it forward. The Shotar did not allow himself to dwell on that notion too long. Such seemed a matter best left to the speculation of the Tahru.

This is a scene from “Among Bright Stars…” which will NOT  be appearing in the final published version. I was looking for scenes to cut and this one jumped  right out at me. From a science fiction, geek-y, nerd level this is the sort of thing many fans drool over. I do know I’ve read books filled with it. Recently even, “Only Superhuman“, doubtless well researched in regards to matters of science and biology, is filled with pages of (needless?) explanation – To a degree thats A-OK, but there come moments when I find myself thinking <Can we get back to the characters?>

Any how, as nice as it is to learn what drives a Falcanian FX-24 battleship — Starblade, in the long run, I don’t think it really enlightened the book very much. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve various Sci-Fi-y paragraphs filled with this sort of thing about Morningstars (and those who have read Starblade know I’ve a bit of a biological fixation where it comes to Falcanians as well) but I can at least tell myself, in that case it tells you something about the character.

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VX-7 Starcracker

From a garter holster, Nadia pulled out her own gold-plated VX-7 Starcracker. A gift from Sharr, the compact, sleek high-caliber pistol remained among the handful of firearms designed to make killing dents in a Morningstar. One of Grenadier Firearms rarest, and most expensive weapons, only twelve ever having officially been manufactured.

I was going to introduce this gun in book three, but I might as well set it up in book two, so when it does what it does, it has a lineage.

 

 

No Expiration Dates (or Tears In Rain)

I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.

Time to die.

One of the things I’ve been striving for, is to make sure my Morningstars are very different sort of humanoid robot. Now of course the hill to overcome here is there exists so many examples of androids in fiction, be they Commander Data, or Roy Batty, or the twelve humanoid Cylon models.

Usually androids in fiction can be broken down into two forms. Either what amounts to clones,  synthetic people whose basic material of creation originates with — Human DNA, or an endoskeleton covered in faux flesh, and in the case of say a Terminator (Cyberdyne Systems Model 101), real flesh. The Replicants, or as Philip K. Dick calls them in “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” — Andys, are explicitly described as products of genetic engineering. From all that I’ve managed to figure out, the humanoid Cylons are not that different in this regard. The implication is that the stuff to build them originated with animal DNA of some sort, probably samples stolen from Colonial captives taken during The First Cylon War.

I wanted to come up with a hybrid of both the endoskeleton notion and the DNA for the Morningstars. This lead me to the conclusion that I needed to change the very substance which they were molded out of. There is no connection between them or any animal on the face of Earth. They however do have exoskeletons and of course a different sort of brain and muscles. All of Which also brought about the idea that Morningstars do not have an expiration date, they are, for all intents immortal beings.

The Morningstar, is actually the ideal form… But more on that as The Neo-human Series continues onward.

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