Getting published; Situation Normal

So, I got a call from my agent last Wednesday.  He called at 9pm, and we started talking.



At the moment, it looks a  lot like it's Situation Normal.   And, for those who do not know military acronyms, Situation Normal are the first two words of SNAFU.



On the one hand, my agent is having a grand old time selling projects. As long as they're nonfiction.



And, as you might recall, while A Pius Man has historical elements all over the darned place, it's contained within a framework of a thriller. Which puts me in a new acronym: SOL.



However, my agent suggested I try writing something in nonfiction. Maybe even Young Adult nonfiction.  Maybe something in Ethics, or Religion, or something like that. Something that parents would want their kids to read.  And, after all, I have been spending large parts of my time writing religion articles for Examiner.com.



So ... any thoughts?



Seriously, you folks are the most non-partisan observers I know. Do you think I should write more articles on Catholicism, only make it into a non-fiction book? I can call it Snarky Theology, 101.



There's also the wonderful world of IRA songs. I had an entire thesis in graduate school around Irish rebel songs. Between the text and the appendix, that was almost 150 pages. I would only need about 90 more pages to have a full book ready.



And, there's philosophy. Yes, philosophy. I can literally rewrite philosophy for the basic consumption of the general population. I am snarky by nature, after all.



For those of you who think I should be writing a nonfiction book on Pius XII .... no. Because I'd rather write a novel that people would read than be lost in the shuffle of the two dozen books on the subject.



So, what do you think I should try? Irish rebel songs? Snarky theology? Philosophy? Ethics? Something else all together?  Give me a comment with your thoughts on the matter.

Writer's block

Most people perceive writer's block from the movies as kind of a mental constipation. Just nothing is coming out of the writer's brain, usually for no apparent reason at all.



To be honest, writer's block is more like writer's jamming signal.  Believe it or not, it's not so much a matter of we can't write, it's that we have too much else kicking around that needs to be addressed.



For example, I have a sequel to A Pius Man.  I have two, actually; it's a nice, solid trilogy. I haven't touched the lousy thing in months.



Now this is, in part, because I've had to rewrite several bits of the trilogy multiple times. I'm not entirely certain of who or what will survive, and should I be bothered to continue writing if I don't know what changes a future editor is going to make?



Not to mention that I have another book series I'm working on, called Honor At Stake .... at least, that's what book one is called. It's my little revenge on the entire vampire genre, plus a fairly good story, if I do say so myself.



Haven't written one word of that in a few months either. Why? Because it's actually one long rewrite.  I wrote a 440-page vampire novel once, where a government agent found himself in the middle of an anti-vampire army in the middle of Brooklyn. Then, I decided to backtrack a little, and made a novel to show the start of that said army; how the relationships developed, how the disparate elements came together....



So, book one is finished, book two is half finished. And I haven't touched that in months either.



Why? Because I keep thinking of books I want to write.  And the problem becomes that they're all books in the same universe. All of these characters have back stories in novels I don't know if they're going to get published. In fact, there's too much to be done.



Writer's block isn't a matter of having nothing to write. It's a matter of having too much, not knowing where to start, and knowing that, really, you should be trying a bunch of "books one"s, instead of writing the massive universe you want to.



In short, writer's block is a lot like a jamming signal. There's just too much interference.



In my case, not only do I have the issue of multiple novels, I also have the additional problem of working on a job that requires me to be social. This is a problem in and of itself.



In short, life is getting interesting.

Music Monday, with Lindsey Stirling and Skyrim

If you haven't heard of Skyrim, don't worry, it's just a video game.



On the other hand, you have heard of Lindsey Stirling (if you're new here, do a quick search, you'll find her a few places on the blog).



Bear with the first thirty seconds of the video. Trust me.

Sorry about that

So, yesterday was sort of shot up.



Ie: I didn't get around to posting anything.



As mentioned last week, life has been a little hectic. I've gone from posting once a week, to once or twice a day, to only three times a week, and now I can't seem to keep that up.



If you all forgive me, it's been a rough year.



One of my best friends threw me under a bus (well, that's the short version), another one who I knew for a dozen years had a temper tantrum because I wasn't in lock step with her about what she does to herself, I've gotten a girlfriend, was dumped, and made up.



My agent won't get back to me, another publisher has me on hold until at least May, if not June, and I've got a new job that requires me to have easily 500% more contact with human beings on a regular basis than I used to.



While this may all sound like complaining, I assure you, it's not.  All I'm saying is that, if I miss a day here or there, between Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, there's more likely than not a good reason for it.



It's been a rough freaking year.



I hope to do better.

Review: Live and Let Fly.

Karina Fabian has done some novels that could only be qualified as interesting. She's written theology, Catholic science fiction, rescue nuns, zombie exterminators, and those are just the ones that we'e taken a brief look at here.



And then there's Vern, the Dragon Private investigator.



Welcome to Los Lagos, Colorado, home of the Gap; in this case, the Gap is an inter-dimensional hole in time and space, and we can be grateful that this one isn't set in Cardiff.  The Gap has made Los Lagos home of plenty of interesting species from the Faerie dimension, a realm that is quite Catholic, and the original home to Vern, who was a dragon of some repute even before he had an encounter with a knight named George.



Now, banished to our world by the Duke of Pebbles-on-Tweed, Vern has made his living as a PI, along with his sidekick, the Vatican Mage Sister Grace.



Like every good PI story from Dashel Hammet to Jim Butcher, the story starts small, and spirals out of control quickly. What starts as the search for a missing ring after an assault, quickly turns into a murder mystery, with a kidnapping for a side dish, and it turns into race to stop the end of the world, dun dun dunnnnnnnn.....



But how do you stop a killer that leaves no trace? Not even a scent a dragon can follow?



Overall, the story is fun. There are some nice shots at Hollywood along the way(let's start with the chapter titles "Murky but Present Dangers," or "Gapraker").  And it includes the best take on Disney animatronics that I've seen since Peter David's Psi-Man series. The chapter titles were something else ("Seven Habits of Highly Defective Henchmen.")  In fact, the humor that works best is when Vern narrates events in term of cliche (see: excerpts here).  The satirical elements are possibly the funniest parts of the novel. I'm not sure if one of the villains was supposed to resemble Dilbert's Pointy-Haired-Boss, but it works.



Also along for the ride is the Bureau of Interdimensional Law Enforcement. ("BILE?" Vern thinks. "There's a name that must have been made in committee.")  With some entertaining parodies of James Bond thrown in, as well as one character who should be played by Marvel's Agent Coulson.



And, seriously, who can argue with a book where Shiva is a war correspondent?  Or where the Vatican has its own SpecOps team, giving a whole new meaning to the term "church militant"? It's right up there with John Ringo's Princess of Wands novel, that was based in the real world, with a little more strangeness attached.



There is also a wonderful sequence of negotiating with the kidnappers. It's only two pages long, but it's truly entertaining.



Live and Let Fly has some good solid action sequences. Like the attack of the killer animatronics, or a scene with an airship that was a cross between Final Fantasy VI and a John Nance novel.



And then, there's the line "I wanted the Holy Hand Grenades on standby in case all Hell did break loose."



Yeah, this was fun.

Interview with author Karina Fabian on "Live and Let Fly."

We've had a few interviews with Karina Fabian before.  She's appeared as a guest blogger once or twice. She's tolerated interviews from here for at least two of her books -- ISIG II, and Mind Over Mind.




And, now, we're on her novel Live and Let Fly.




What I'm going to do is simple.  This interview will not appear on the blog, but on my Examiner.com page.  Since the word count on the articles is supposed to cap at only about 500 words, it's been broken up into a four part article.



I asked how she came up with a dragon and a magic-wielding nun as a heroic duo.



I asked her about writing the novel, in part 2



World building was much of part three



And part four was on being Catholic and writing this book.



However, I'm not going to let you, loyal reader, and newcomer, leave here empty handed. No.  For coming here today, I'm giving you excerpts from the novel.



First, some background.

For a dragon detective with a magic-slinging nun as a partner, saving the worlds gets routine. So, when the US government hires Vern and Sister Grace to recover stolen secrets for creating a new Interdimensional Gap--secrets the US would like to keep to itself, thank you—Vern sees a chance to play Dragon-Oh-Seven.



No human spy, however, ever went up against a Norse goddess determined to exploit those secrets to rescue her husband. Sigyn will move heaven and earth to get Loki—and use the best and worst of our world against anyone who tries to stop her.



It's super-spy spoofing at its best with exotic locations (Idaho--exotic?), maniacal middle-managers, secret agent men, teen rock stars in trouble, man-eating animatronics, evil overlords and more!

And now, some snippets, and extra data.

Short:

Festival was Friday. We had two days to stop a Nordic demigod evil overlord—overlady, overbeing, whatever—from blowing up a nuclear power plant, possibly destroying half an island full of revelers in the process, and creating an Interdimensional Gap through which she can bring the rest of her giant relatives to set up housekeeping where the Faerie Catholic Church didn't have the power to control them. In other words, two days until Hel broke loose.

I've had worse deadlines. I could afford a long bath in our whirlpool tub and a good meal first.

Long:

Charlie
started to close the door behind us, his other hand gripping the
handle of his dagger so tightly I could hear the leather wrap on the
handle strain, as we listened to the footsteps coming our way, slow,
bored. My predator's instincts rose; then I had a great idea. I shook
my head at Charlie and winked, and he shuffled out of my way, leaving
the door ajar. I settled myself with my back to the door, just inside
the shadows and let the script play itself out:

CLUELESS
MINION enters Stage Left. He pauses, hearing a noise, but does not
report it. Instead, he fondles the stars on his nametag and moves
toward the empty hallway, his mind on adding another. (Probably
saying, "I was proactive today!")

CLUELESS
pauses at door, hesitating. He stands and, back to the door, reaches
for his walkie-talkie.

Suddenly,
a well-muscled and gorgeously scaled tail whips out from the crack in
the door and wraps itself around his neck. He only has time to grab
ineffectively at the tail before he's drawn into the darkness. The
door shuts behind him.

Pan
shot of the empty hallway.

FADE
TO BLACK

I
slammed my victim on the floor and pinned him with my forelegs, then
I leaned my face in nice and slow, making sure he got a good look at
my fangs before he saw my eyes. "Where's the girl?" I
growled low and menacingly.

"Wh-What
g-g-girl?"

Charlie
crouched down by Stutterboy and glanced at his nametag. "Look,
Philip, we're in a bit of a hurry. We know Rhoda Dakota's being held
captive somewhere nearby. Now you can be a good survivor and tell us
where…or you can be dinner."

"I-I
don't—"

"Phil
A. Minion." I mused and drooled a bit for effect. I live for
these moments, I really do. I licked his cheek and asked Charlie,
"Can I have fries with that?"

"Why
not? This is Idaho."

Life gets strange: Mass Effect, Girlfriends, and a new business.

I've had some stuff happen in my life lately.  It's not necessarily good, or bad, but comes under the heading of "Stuff Happens."



I have a job.  I have a girlfriend. And I have an Xbox 360, and I don't know what's more destructive to my blog productivity. :)



My job is actually my new business. No, this blog isn't the only thing I'm doing right now. Waiting for the publishing industry to stop being beaten up by the economy is not my idea of productivity.  However, people always use, and need cheaper electricity, so, it should be fun.  Anyone who wants to know about my job, or start their own business from home, can click here.  Anyone who wants to look at the services provided, click here.



And, of course, I'm still writing two columns for Examiner.com -- self defense and Catholicism 101.  So, my life is busy.



Now that that's out of the way....



My Xbox 360 was a gift from someone who got his for free (something about a laptop purchase). I had been collecting Gamestop gift cards for a while, with the goal of buying a console. However, since the world landed a 360 in my lap, I went out and got a few games.



I started with the Mass Effect franchise. I may climb out of it in another two or three months, when I'm done with the various and sundry ways of saving / destroying the universe.



Mass Effect is a sprawling video game, where personalities impact the story more and more as you play along. The basic premise is standard for a Doctor Who episode: one character has to stop the all life in the entire universe from being killed.  It's even spawned a few novels.







Now, tell me that this trailer isn't more epic than the last three Star Wars films. Which, granted, isn't hard, but you get the idea.  It even has some good voice acting from "real" actors, like Keith David, Seth Green, Martin Sheen, Lance Henriksen, Marina Sirtis  Dwight Schultz ..... I'm going to stop there



That's one corner of my life. On the other, I have a short-term relationship in progress ... yes, I went into a relationship with an expiration date. So sue me.  And, she needed to find a new place to live, closer to her place of business.  Her place of business is five minutes from my house. Her new place of residence is four doors down.

So, my life has gotten more interesting lately.  There may be some delay here and there because of that.



But, I'm hoping it won't be too bad.



Be well everyone. I'll see you next week, where we have the return of Karina Fabian