Category: christianity

Book Tour – October

Apologies all around:  my awful “day job” – which takes place at night – has me to the point where I see my children for four freaking minutes each evening before I go to work.  Not happy about that.

Anyhoo.  I’ve been a tick busy getting questionnaires answered and blog-posts typed for an upcoming Virtual Book Tour for “The Fourth Law.”  Sure, I’m almost a year late doing this… I’m old, dammit.

Some of the questions are straightforward; a few have been very thought provoking.  Much more dangerous are the requested blog entries.  For example, the one I’m working on now said ‘topic:  author’s choice.’  Ooo!  What trouble I can get into!  In fact, that’s exactly what I want to do.  So, I’m writing a little (~600 word) entry about Lily’s Catholic faith.  Honestly, it’s something you really don’t see in current science fiction much, and I had some early reviewers tell me that “it will turn off some readers.”

Fine.

Politics is downstream from culture.  I want my daughters to have a better life than I have, and, honestly, that looks iffy these days.  If I can nudge WestCiv culture in a way that I think might help them – even if it costs me readers and sales – I’ll do that.  In “T4L” I have Lily freely admit that although she grew up Catholic, her faith meant little to her, until she was on her own at the hospital and orphanage.  Much of how she thinks and acts towards God and the Church now are heavily drawn from Niven and Pournelle’s two books about the Inferno.  A sharp eyed reader of “T4L” will see that every time Lily cries  “…God!  Help me…!” things suddenly change for her, but not in a way she expects.  Getting your prayers answered is like that.

Lily’s witness to her Catholic faith is so important, that by the end of the first book of Machine Civilization, one of Ai’s family is well on her way to a conversion… which will be played out when my 20-page children’s book is completed in a couple of months (go Claudia go!).  It is also something that sustains her on her trek across the former southern States of the US in “Echoes of Family Lost.”  In both books, her faith, and her charitas towards her friends, define who she is.

I’m tired and rambling.  Need to get back to that guest-blog entry.  Thanks for reading… and… (grins)… prayers would be welcome!

Henge Crosses the Tiber

I’m trying to get things sorted with a great illustrator in New Zealand for my next book:  a little 20-page thing about Henge (pronounced “hen-geh”), the youngest of Machine Civilization.

In the mean time, I wrote a short about what happens there.  It’s not much; the book will be better, but sometimes, you have to say something.  As always, please forgive WordPress butchering my formatting below the fold.

Continue reading “Henge Crosses the Tiber” →

How much does a Hemingway?

Although I really don’t much like his stuff, Hemingway was one hell of a writer.  One thing of his that I do take to heart is his quip of “write drunk; edit sober.”  I’ve got one visual and two traditional novels out of that dictum.

Which brings me to this:  the very short story below the fold was made with just the opposite formula; I’ve been drinking coffee all night, and just switched to cheap wine around 0500 so I can pass out in bed and go to sleep around 0730.  I’ll take a look at again when I wake up.

SPOILER WARNING!  The event below the fold takes place about one year after those in “Echoes of Family Lost.”  For anyone who’s read that, the “reveal” is not really a surprise, but if you like to make your own way through a story, then please shy away.

Usual apologies for how WP screws up .doc formatting.

Continue reading “How much does a Hemingway?” →

“You don’t have a Soul; you are a Soul. You have a Body.” CS Lewis

CreateSpace is now processing my final changes to “Echoes of Family Lost;” with luck and grace, it should be available this week.  So, what’s next?

“Henge’s Big Day!”  I’ve never written for children before.  Why not see what I’m capable of doing?  In an earlier post I mentioned the library at the school my two girls attend.  I’ve been a volunteer in said library for years… stacking, shelving, reorganizing.  I’ve had plenty of time to look at those books in the “E” section.  Easy?  Early Reader?  Don’t know nor care.  But I started paying attention to the format.

“HBD” will be about 10 x 10″ with a hardcover – if I can afford it.  I’d like to:  we withdraw softcover kids books after only two years of use, on average; they’re just too damaged.  Kids are natural entropy-bots; it’s one of the things that make them interesting.  I’d lost my point… so, about ten inches square (that’s blib quatloos for you on the metric system).  I thought about a story… I thought about Henge (pronounced “hen-geh”) the youngest of Machine Civilization and also something of a hybrid… although that explanation really doesn’t come out until late in “EFL.”  Even so, late in “T4L” Henge overhears a comment by Lily, and immediately applies it to herself.

On the one hand, MachCiv is all about so-called AI’s; on the second hand, I keep hammering away at their nature as people.  On the gripping hand, “T4L” is shot through with Lily’s re-discovered Christianity.  What if one of them looked at the evidence and wanted to become a Christian?

How do you baptize a string of code?  Throwing water onto a rack of servers would be a very bad idea.  But… the rest of the idea….

I cannot draw; once upon a time I could make 3D-parametric design software dance, sing, bring drinks and empty ashtrays.  Now…. Below the fold are some awful sketches from my 20-page “Henge’s Big Day!”  I wont say ‘don’t laugh,’ as I have, too!  I use it to try to let illustrators know what I’m looking for.  What’s sad is that I’ve gone looking for illustrators here and here and here, freely talking four figures of money, and after a month I have only a single, possible lead.  Is everyone so satisfied with their day-jobs?!  Is everyone so narcoleptized by the dole?  Why is finding an illustrator this difficult?  Twenty pages!  Little background!  Watercolors!

Sheesh.  It’s enough to drive a man to drink.  Let me get another Martini, then tell you about Book Four.  Now, that’s killing me.

Continue reading ““You don’t have a Soul; you are a Soul. You have a Body.” CS Lewis” →