Don't Call It a Comeback...

...Just a working vacation. Okay, so I've been ignoring JauntWorld and boy is it peeved. But, over on IPTP Agent Maya, I have a good excuse. So click over there and read why I've been absent.

Back now? JauntWorld's been quiet as I haven't been writing in there for a while. I'll get to Cloak someday, but duty to my other mistress in outer space demands my fullest attention. I'll try to do my original blog some justice and post more often. Thanks for reading!

Late Summer

My reading list the last few months has consisted of new (old) comics and I'm quite enjoying the yellow old newsprint and funky comic smell. This keeps me in a good state of mind for my own comic project, which I've finally finished writing. Having begun designs for characters, I'll soon start roughing out the 135-page total for the entire seven-issue series. It's certainly a far cry from the olden days of drawing on folded notebook paper and then stapling them!

On The Third Beginning

The first rough chapter of Cloak ends up being better for Chapter 2, so it's back to the outline for some tweaks. Of course this seems to be a bit of a tradition for me as both Jaunt and Ether have neither of their original first chapters. It's interesting going back to the well once more with these characters for the final time, so I'm doubly certain to have to craft a fitting ending for JauntWorld as a series. The challenge lies in writing in originality and editing out anything that strikes as a retread of the other books. I'm setting myself up for a big payoff which I hope I can accomplish!

My other comic endeavor is going well—six scripts down, one to go. Then the real work begins.

New Year, New Book (Soon)

Sorry to be gone so long, personal issues and such. But I finally have a proof copy of Ether ready, reworking it based on the sample I ordered a while back. Designing the interior text body, exterior cover and ordering my ISBN are time-consuming tasks, but the work is worth it. I'm getting closer to a finished product with some proof corrections to come and I couldn't be happier. Ether was delayed for the better part of 2009 and I've had some catching up to do, but the entire creation and finishing process the second time around (after Jaunt) is still rewarding.

Here's to a productive and creative 2011! 

Late-Season Rambling

It's that time of year once more, day is the same as evening is the same as day. Inspiration is hard to come by so I work on gathering my research and plotting out my future tales. The holidays are tough to navigate, as the day job sucks the energy from me and the cold darkness depresses imagination. I have started the first glimmers of an outline for Cloak a bit early as I have found some intriguing research to fuel the trials our protagonists will be put through. And I continue plotting out the comic I have in mind to actually draw one of these years.

I watch and read the precarious situation across the Korean Peninsula with concern and anticipation, or is that anxiety? I can only hope the Kims get what's coming to them, either via more sanctions or their masters in China furtively pulling on that unraveling leash.... Oh and that piece of Wikileaks theater.

It's more and more apparent ebooks are the independent's new modus operandi, so I must get into the mindset for digital content and begin shifting my focus towards them. The Mrs has acquired a NookColor (in addition to her original Nook) and the avenues open to furthering ebook content on the device are astounding. Merging text and visual media will soon be commonplace, leaving big-time publishers in the dust if they don't get on the bandwagon and stop charging ludicrous price points for simple epubs while pooh-poohing multimedia e-reader content.

And one more year piles up under JauntWorld's belt here at Blogger!

Ether Second Quarter 2010 Update: Coming Into Focus

The rough draft is coming along nicely, with the final sequential scene finished. However, it's not done yet, as I still have a gap or two to fill, scenes to rewrite, edit or beef-up and a few minor, minor details to put into place. But the entirety of the book is set: beginning, almost all the middle and the ending. The toughest part is putting on my editor's cap and reading with a jaded eye, cutting out the bits that don't quite work or just go nowhere.

Having a complete rough draft is exciting and the next best thing to actually holding the finished product in my hands. I think creating a book must be akin to filming a movie; write a screenplay, film the scenes, edit the best bits in and throw out the chaff.

At the end of a long road, it's good to see the destination coming up over the next hill.

A Decade Ago (This Past May)...

I began the first draft of Jaunt. Extrapolating from the (sadly, misplaced or lost) handwritten teleplay "Temporal Retrieve" I scrawled out in 1995, I recreated the first dozen pages of the half-baked idea, fleshing them out into what would become Chapters 1 through 5 of Jaunt. Mixing in dashes of The X-Files for inspiration, I chucked out all the Trek fanfic tendencies I'd picked up and unlocked a new avenue for my writing. Not technically the first novel I've written (I have one and-a-half complete Trek trunk novels hanging around here), it was the first wholly original long-form work of mine. I owe it all to the Pocket Books' Star Trek editors' FAQ, which, in paraphrase, said, "Don't bother submitting a first-time work."

And what would become my own playground, JauntWorld, was born.

Now, an Ether update. Two months later, and I'm nearly done with the first draft. My biggest obstacle is just pulling all the strands together to make the story end right. Ether certainly isn't as unwieldy as Jaunt's first draft, which tipped the scales at 160,000 words, and I think it's somewhere in the neighborhood of 70,000 to 80,000. But I'm still under the hood tinkering with the mechanics.

I'm definitely eager to get this book in the bag!

Ether First Quarter 2010 Update

Work on the first draft of Ether has been coming along slowly as of late, as I'm delving into the preliminary stages of a potential project (one of many, of course!) I have in mind for the next five years. Mid-to-late 2011 is the publishing date I'm shooting for for Ether, so I have no time to be idle. The last few chapters are coming into focus, so I must plunge ahead regardless.

Ether will have a much wider canvas than Jaunt, encompassing more corners of the world and characters than ever before. The difficulties with that are, I have more to keep track of! Jaunt, despite its many plotlines, was fairly linear, requiring fewer research resources than I have had up to this point with Ether. Half the fun of writing fiction is the research, and Ether's bibliography and sources are a long list, much longer than Jaunt's.

I admit I've struggled to include here various bits of research and inspiration for Jaunt, as the research I did was just so long ago (more on that in my next post!) that nothing of my notes remains. Ether, once the pipeline towards publication picks up, will have a veritable flood of sources and links to put up on this blog. I can't wait, really, as I believe Ether is my best work of writing yet.

Oh, okay, here's a little blurb:

"The explosive next chapter of the JauntWorld series begins now! Special Agent Greg Mason must probe the clandestine mystery that is Project Ether, a dark energy superweapons program rooted in the forbidden research of a rogue Iranian physicist, seemingly in the employ of the Russian-led Confederation of Independent States.

But all is not as it appears. With Mason and his team of IIA agents tracking the clues of Project Ether’s origins—from the remnants of North Korea, the deserts of Iran, the decks of a fast-attack submarine to the wastelands of Antarctica—a shocking disaster leads them to the inescapable truth: the Confederation is already armed with this superweapon, and the countdown to war has begun…."

Jaunt Origin Story, Part II

Way back in Dec '07, I posted Origin Story, AKA How I Conceived Jaunt. Well, not only did I have the goofy story about two guys in spacesuits duking it out through time, I also drew a rough sketch while daydreaming in high school one day. This portrait ultimately became Special Agent James Gilmour, complete in his hazard suit that protected him from being "fried" while jaunting through spacetime (not that I knew it at the time). Well, here's the scanned sketch, all cleaned up from its humble beginnings as a class schedule.

 That was a long time ago. And I hope I'm a better artist now, as well!

In Search of... a MacGuffin

Hitchcock employed the term "MacGuffin" as the mechanical element that crops up in any story, usually of no importance, simply driving the plot along, whereas George Lucas describes it as powerful, the audience caring about it as much as the heroes and villains.

I subscribe to the latter. JauntWorld, being essentially a sci-fi thriller, needs the strong MacGuffin to be the impetus for the plot to develop, and the protagonists and antagonists to struggle over.

The timebending alien jewels in Jaunt are more powerful than any technology humanity had yet developed, and of course are threaded throughout the story. How I invented these jewels are lost to the crooks and folds of my brain, but they were an early story device from the first sketches of what was then "Temporal Retrieve."

Ether needed its MacGuffin, and that is provided by the suitably mysterious property of spacetime termed "dark energy," its effects first described in 1998.

Until the MacGuffin decides to rear its head, there is no story, simple as that. Although, a kernel was recently planted for the finale....

Further Reading:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macguffin

Handling Criticism

I don't claim to be perfect—far from it. Anyone who places a work in public opens him or herself up to criticism, be it constructive or negative. I value any review of my work; it makes me a better creator. Learning from constructive criticism is part and parcel of the creation process, just as much as picking up that pen or pencil, typing on that blank page or computer screen and all the way to the final product, framed or bound.

I am just a small-time writer/artist, wanting to contribute back to this world, so I refuse to subscribe to the viewpoint that creators should be above criticism, particularly the wealthier and more famous one becomes. That doesn't mean a negative review doesn't sting. Questioning grammar, syntax and other aspects of writing construction are valid criticisms; some people just don't read the words on the page like I write them in my head. I suppose a good editor is called for in that instance, and in my case, yes, I do not have one at my disposal, which is my call (or better yet, my savings account's). I recently read a critique questioning choices I made in regards to writing Jaunt, one of which goes beyond constructive criticism to pondering my subconscious as I was writing the story. I will take that into consideration.

So I say, thank you. Thank you for strengthening my creative suit of armor. I am certain there will be more critics out there pondering my subconscious in the future as I create better, more self-satisfying stories. Because, in the end, that's what it is all about. I can please only one person in this world, and that person is me.

JauntWorld Chronology

Okay, to put it mildly, the world as it stands in Jaunt is rather bleak. As a creator, I always find it limiting in sci-fi that a created future is so advanced and technology wonderful that drama is non-existent. As anyone who's read Calvin and Hobbes will tell you, shouldn't we have flying cars and jetpacks by now (and that was in 1990!)? The future most likely won't be that much different than it stands now, save for bigger TVs, more loaded iPods, faster internet and video games closer to reality than reality itself.
Some things won't change, however. War. Economic difficulties. Politics. Covert shenanigans. Military shenanigans. And for crissakes, people will still read books. And listen to music. And watch movies. Although humans may have implants that makes the web, iTunes and other contemporary forms of entertainment hopelessly obsolete, we'll still be human, with needs such as accessible water supplies, energy and food. This is where JauntWorld lives; not in geewhiz rayguns and mylar-wearing costumes everybody thought we'd be shooting and wearing, but in a future disarmingly similar to now. And yes, I still think some archaic people will wear glasses and cotton trousers. Things change, but we're not so far from life 150 years ago. And Jaunt is no different.

So, here is the admittedly work-in-progress JauntWorld Chronology. And if you read Jaunt and this Chronology carefully, you'll see the seeds of where the slowly in-progress indirect sequel, tentively titled Ether, is heading. But please don't blame me if some details change!

1940- An alien craft, damaged in flight, explodes high above the atmosphere, sending wreckage into Asia and the western Pacific Ocean.
Shimmering jewels are recovered from a meteor crater and interspersed within cloth woven by Buddhist monks in an uncharted temple in Nepal.
A man equipped with highly advanced technology appears in a fishing vessel heading out of Queen Charlotte Sound, but strangely disappears without a trace.

2012- Iraq splits into three confederations: the Shi’ia Republic of Iraq, Iraq (Sunni Republic) and Kurdistan. In the ensuing split, the United States ends its military involvements and commitments inside the Shi’ia and Sunni Republics of Iraq, limiting itself to air and ground bases in the new Kurdistan.

2031- Mars return mission involves the deaths of six crewmen. The ensuing scandal destroys the space program. NASA is abolished, and no astronauts go into space again.

2033- Bushehr nuclear tragedy in Iran topples the Shi’ia Islamic government, enabling a coalition of military factions to seize power. A brutal war lasts two years, killing a million Iranians and other indigenous peoples. Successive, short-lived military dictatorships ensue until intervention by NATO forces allow secular civilian government modeled on Turkey for the first time since the Shah’s rule nearly sixty years prior.

2054- Birth of the Korean Feudal States. North Korea descends into fiefdoms ruled by generals after the collapse of the Kim Dynasty, following the destruction of a secret research facility at Kanggye, Chagang-Go Territory, rumored to involve dark energy; this is not substantiated, since no physical evidence exists for UN investigators to locate. Incident is labeled "Unresolved," and the world turns its attentions elsewhere.

2072- A global depression brought about by environmental pressures, economic corrections in former third world nations and continued warfare across Africa and Asia ripples throughout every country, bringing billions of people to the brink of mass starvation and poverty in the crisis. Human progress is set back an estimated forty to eighty years, and many wonder whether a new “dark age” is upon the world.
The Kermani dynasty is established in Iran by General Ali Amir Asseem Kermani, who overthrows the civilian government in the aftermath of the global depression crisis, creating the Kermani Republic of Iran.
Kurds in northwest Iran break away and join the Iraqi Kurdistan Confederate state before the Kermani forces can consolidate power to force them back. A wall built by the Kurds with clandestine American military assistance severs Iranian Kurdistan from the Kermans, which brings an uneasy cold war between the Kermani state and Kurdistan.

2074- Collapse of the Canadian Dominion government following the loss of sub-ice Arctic territories during the Russo-Canada War, aka the Polar Bear War. Economic, internet and petroleum-based warfare waged by the Russian Federation against Canada is met by stiff resistance in the Western Hemisphere, but many are reluctant to engage Russia over its bullying tactics. The Polar Bear War is the first fought above and below the Arctic Circle in history. Many speculate it won’t be the last.
The Russian Federation assumes control over all of Canada’s sub-ice polar territories, assets and holdings, then declares them as spoils and reparations of the war.
United States assumes control of all Canadian debts and property, officially enacted by votes of Congress and the remnants of the Canadian Parliament. The United States of North America, or USNA, is created.
Mexico mobilizes forces to combat a possible forced annexation of its northern states by the USNA, but stands down after tense negotiations tempers talk of a hegemony by the USNA over all of North America.

2079- 33rd Amendment to the US Constitution, allowing for the citizens of Canada to become automatic US citizens, is passed, with 47 of the 54 American states voting for. Formal meshing of US-Canadian federal agencies and bureaus creates several hybrid agencies, e.g the Intelligence and Investigation Agency, or IIA.

2098- Economic recovery of the USNA is finally underway, but twenty years of partial recessions in North America hits rest of the world hard. Many Asian countries still unable to cope, falling into yet another spiraling economic depression.
China establishes a buffer zone, called the Central Asian Conglomerates, or CAC, composed of the former nations of Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. The CAC is employed as leverage against continuing global economic hardship, domestic stagflation and the increasingly belligerent Russian Federation.

2101- The Antarctic Treaty is dissolved by vote of the United Nations, with much dispute and accusations of corruption. Several nations involved in Antarctic research openly declare their parcels of Antarctica are formally colonies in a land grab unseen since the American Manifest Destiny of the mid-eighteenth century and the pre-Great War colonial carving up of Africa. USNA demarcates a large sliver of land encompassing the South Polar region and designates it as the Antarctic Colonial Frontier. Antarctica’s once-barren outer banks and peninsulas are ripe for hardy dwellers willing to migrate and establish new, planned cities—modeled on Brasília—subject only to their independent spirits.

2109- The Commonwealth of Independent States, existing since 1991, collapses, due to economic mismanagement, the continuing recessions of the Eurasian countries, successive internal power battles and other domestic crises. The Russian Federation is dissolved and replaced by the Russian Confederation, consisting of many semi-autonomous Russian states. The Confederation of Independent States is created from the remaining ex-Commonwealth nations, each ruled by oligarchs and military generals. Thousands are displaced in the ensuing confusion, causing massive decay of Russia's infrastructure. Oligarchs pump money into the economy to keep the Confederation solvent and provide a reason for being.

2129- The True Peoples of Russia (TPoR), a front organization run by various and sundry oligarchs and siloviki in the Confederation of Independent States, begins a terror campaign against the Russian government and military. Mass executions in every strata of Russian society proceeds for nearly a decade before mysteriously falling silent, seemingly running their course. The TPoR ceases all demands, and appears to go defunct.

October, 2144- Special Agents Gilmour and Mason are assigned to the Temporal Retrieve project.


Update (12.29.2011) 2012 is looking not too far from current reality!

A Little About Jaunt (aka Origin Story)

Waaay back in the early '90s, random images in my head of a good guy and a bad guy fighting in strange spacesuits and jumping through time led me to write the scraps of what at first was called "Temporal Retrieve," a fantastically awful name for a book. Starting out as a handwritten script, then shelved for about five years, I instead focused on writing Star Trek fanfic to sharpen my skills, having the youthful delusion that I could actually get one of those published someday. My awakening came when Pocket Books' FAQ basically said "Forget About It," so I returned to that goofy time travel story with the guys duking it out in spacesuits.
After two years spent knocking it out in QuarkXPress, then moving over to InDesign, I had my first draft. And it was too long. Like 130,000 words. Perfectly suited to not get me an agent, let alone ever see it in print. I spent the next three-to-four years editing it, trimming it, having my wife read it, telling me what was good, what was not so good and "what the #@&$ does that even mean?" and I had a shorter, more cohesive and streamlined novel I had re-titled Jaunt.
And so I sent off queries and samples in SASEs to several agents I had selected from the Writer's Market and various online sources like Editors and Predators. I guess some kinda sorta liked it, but thrillers are a dime-a-dozen these days, so I'm sure a noob like me had next to nothing in the way of potential. (Don't even get me started about dragons, vampires or demon-slaying were-cats wearing hip-huggers written by fifteen year-olds and suddenly optioned by big motion picture studios for seven figures.)
I happened to come across Lulu.com almost by accident, in a Photoshop magazine of all places. So I logged on, checked it out, mulled it over for a few weeks and thought, damn, I COULD do this. Design my interior pages? Hell, not even big-time authors get that opportunity. Pick my own cover, design it, too? Ditto. I've been a Mac user and an artist all my life, why shouldn't I finally put those years of doodling with Adobe Illustrator to good use? If it looks like poop, well I'll take the blame. If it rocks, well, I'll bask in the sun. Above all else, this will truly be MY BOOK, not what some big house publisher decides it is, designed by somebody on their payroll. So, with my wife's encouragement, I dove in and produced Jaunt, all the while fixing mistakes and nixing bad/half-baked design ideas, and, hopefully, creating something worthy of being on bookshelves.
Seven months later, here I stand. One book published, two short novels set within another universe prepping for launch soon, and a handful of other ideas that each need my urgent attention. It hasn't always been easy, or fun, but it certainly hasn't been dull, either.