New Year (One Month Late)

2010 kicks off with two new ebooks available through www.bn.com. First, the much-anticipated distribution of the Jaunt ebook! With the partnership of Smashwords and Barnes & Noble, Jaunt gets into the ebook format, capable of being read on a wide variety of ereaders, particularly the new iPad and nook! Not to be left out, 2 Shorts (+1) follows suit, both starting at bn.com at $4.95!

This is an exciting time to be a creator and reader, with new avenues to books opening up seemingly by the day.

By the way, that barcode to the right is a semacode. For those unaware, it is a two-dimensional barcode that one takes a picture of with their cell or mobile device, and with the appropriate mobile software, directs one to any website of one's choosing. This semacode leads to the Jaunt Amazon.com page, but expect more for ebook formats soon.

Persian Tinderbox

A recent "vote" highlights the tenuousness of free elections in the modern world—all us who hold true liberal democracy in high regard—and gives us pause to consider what we enjoy. We may be split on election day, and have watercooler debates, but at the end of the day we're all Americans and proud of what we've achieved these past two centuries.

It is important to not forget another "experiment" in recent decades, that of the Islamic Republic of Iran. A failed experiment perhaps, but educated Iranians want and desire true "change" and freedom from repression in the guise of the pious Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. It's easy to superimpose our values on one of the oldest civilizations on earth; we expect modern Iranians to blindly "like us" and be our friends in a region of the planet heavily exploited by past empires. We forget the true or perceived grievances many ordinary Iranians hold.

A common dialogue between our two cultures is gravely needed to get past the differences and our pie-in-the-sky Pollyannaism. Everyday news out of Iran does not look particularly promising, and the violence against ordinary citizens continues there unabated. Explicitly frightening is the measured takeover of public and private Iranian assets by the Revolutionary Guard, self-styled thugs whose tendrils threaten to overthrow whatever shreds of a republic exists and slowly rot Iran from within. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may not be the Supreme Leader, but he shows every sign of emulating Saddam Hussein's military dictatorship. An Iranian war is already underway, and it appears to be inside its own borders. I postulate a future Iran in Ether ruled by a dynastic thug whose origins are rooted in the Revolutionary Guard. Iran is a nation of many splintered peoples, held tight by an increasingly deplorable state apparatus spiraling towards tyranny, much like Iraq once.

If you were President of the United States, what would you do?

Further Reading:

Profile: Iran's Revolutionary Guards

Iran: Where did all the votes come from?

Recognizing Iran as a Strategic Threat: An Intelligence Challenge for the United States

Thanks for the laughs.

Jaunt Cast Bio, Part VI

It's been a while since I posted bios, so here's the IIA supporting cast who helped our heroes in the action:

Section Manager Grant F. “Chief” Louris. Badge number 4876842665380. Born in New York. Age 52, DOB 03.01.2092. Heads the Global Intelligence Directorate of the Washington Bureau, Section Manager of Gilmour, Mason, McKean and Constantine. Reports directly to the IIA Assistant Director Leeds. Married. 5' 11".

Special Agent Neal A. McKean. Badge number 5988284549870. Age 29, DOB 12.05.2116. Born in Michigan. Special Agent in the Global Intelligence Directorate of the Washington Bureau. Uses a fifteen-round, 9mm semi-automatic RT-01/9V pistol and IIA-version voxlink with ground-to-space connection to the Global Security Network and a standard-issue IIA holobook capable of two-way weblink with IIA HQ in D.C. Engaged. 5’ 7”.

Special Agent Lawrence W. Constantine, Jr. Badge number 5988346808433. Age 30, DOB 08.26.2114. Born in Iowa. Special Agent in the Global Intelligence Directorate of the Washington Bureau. Uses a fifteen-round, 9mm semi-automatic Glock SuperXeO pistol and IIA-version voxlink with ground-to-space connection to the Global Security Network and a standard-issue IIA holobook capable of two-way weblink with IIA HQ in D.C. Single. 6’ 3”.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! JauntWorld is two years old today!

Æther

"The exact nature of dark energy is a matter of speculation. It is known to be very homogeneous, not very dense and is not known to interact through any of the fundamental forces other than gravity. Since it is not very dense — roughly 10−29 grams per cubic centimeter — it is hard to imagine experiments to detect it in the laboratory. Dark energy can only have such a profound impact on the universe, making up 74% of universal density, because it uniformly fills otherwise empty space. The two leading models are quintessence and the cosmological constant. Both models include the common characteristic that dark energy must have negative pressure.

"Negative pressure does not influence the gravitational interaction between masses - which remains attractive - but rather alters the overall evolution of the universe, typically resulting in the accelerating expansion of the universe despite the attraction among the masses present in the universe."

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.