MAI SHANGRI-LA

2012: the Beginning or the End?...

2012-01-07T01:47:00.000+07:00

In the Forward to Mai Shangri-La, I talked about the seven-year cycles that shape my life. 2012 marks the 7th year since I began to write "seriously". The question, then is, "Is 2012 the beginning of a new cyle, or the end of an old?

Mai Shangri-La has sold a few copies as a POD title (so few, to be honest: it hasn't been worth registering a tax number with the IRS to collect my Royalties;0). Short story submissions have stalled. The new book languishes in 3rd (or is it 4th?) draft. New starts last year died in the detritus of our move from Bangkok to BC.

I originally asked my wife to indulge me for five years and she has been generous with her support. But as we head into year seven, I don't seem to be able to kick the habit. Like a reformed alcoholic, I still crave the rush when words fall into place and the result is so much greater than the sum of the parts.

And so, when an arthritic elbow roused me early this morning, I dug out my CreateSpace Proof copy of The Wayback Machine for another look.

The result? The Wayback Machine story still engages, the characters intrigue me, and I want to learn more about how it all turns out, maybe in that third story that's been percolating in my subconscious for the past while. But it seems that The Wayback Machine needs a final look before I go there.

First step? Cut 20,000 words from The Wayback Machine and submit as a new YA to the 5th-annual ABNA contest. Let's cut the title too, to The Way Back. Checked Amazon and find the title's available, although the phrase has been used in other longer titles.

Next step? Realistically, ABNA's just a system of deadlines and a sounding board. Chances of making it past the first cut are slim, and of going all the way with ABNA are slim indeed. So the next step is to get back into the agent hunt.

Starting now....

Coming in from the Cold

2011-10-01T14:11:00.000+07:00

Settled now in Canada and ready to get back to Reuben James's world - which is getting nearer by the day. Going to pick up the threads again by getting back at the finished draft of "The Wayback Machine" and restarting the search for an agent.

I've just caught up on Stephen King's latest endeavors, and once again, he's providing the inspiration to "stick to my guns" and try to get this writing career back on the rails.

Who Runs America?

2010-11-17T11:16:00.000+07:00

As I wind down my stint as a HS school librarian, I'm given to reflecting on my 35 years "in the biz". We recently hosted Slam Poet Taylor Mali for our annual evening "Coffee House", and I was struck by the depth of reflection that he brought to the event. I was also impressed that several student offerings questioned the profligate behaviors endemic to modern society.

But have my 35 years as a teachers seen any real change (dare I say "growth"?) in human behavior in modern society? Allan Ginsberg's "Who Runs America" was published, as it happens, in 1974, the year I began my teaching career - but it aptly describes the current view from the suburbs of Bangkok - on a good day...

   "Oil red dung colored smoke
   level to level across the horizon
   blue tainted sky above"
   "Who Runs America? Alan Ginsberg, 3 Dec 1974"

Mali and our student poets suggest that a heartbeat of social conscience does indeed still resonate faintly within our materialistic, me-first, gadget-oriented and NIMBY-obsessed little souls - but talk (even poetry) is cheap. My personal decision to "walk the (environmental) talk" is the only way forward.

Watch for future notes about the resurrection of the "North Road Trading Post".

New Beginnings...

2010-10-15T08:26:00.001+07:00

...come out of Endings, bringing things full circle.

Last week I resigned my position as High School Librarian after 13 years in the job, 25 years at the same school (International School Bangkok) and 35 years "in the business". Of course this will end many facets of my life, but it's a new beginning in all the ways that count.

It will begin to give back to my parents for their years of love and support, and to provide them with as much quality time possible in their remaining years with their 3 year-old grandson.

It will begin to offer my son real opportunities to know and learn from (and then remember) his grandparents. If we're lucky, it will offer him the time to gather real memories to honor them by.

It will begin a family lifestyle change to better "walk the (environmental) talk". For years I've advocated for a gentler footprint on the earth, while maintaining a low-end "jet-set" lifestyle, with a home in Bangkok, a condo at the beach, and undeveloped property in northern B.C. Relocating to Canada will reduce my family's air travel carbon cost and help us move ahead on "green" projects there, which I'll blog about in due course.

It will begin for me a personal journey to more fully follow the Buddhist "eight-fold path". Reuben James, the protagonist of "Mai Shangri-La" uses the mnemonic "Right Understanding, shown in one's Thought, Speach, and Actions, comes through Living Every Moment Carefully" (Livelihood, Effort, Mindfulness and Concentration).

My "new beginnings" will be, I hope, a move toward "Living Every Moment Carefully" to atone, perhaps, for years of disregard and excess. I'm not expecting to change the world - but if each of us who has the freedom to make the choices that I have, exercised those choices, the world would indeed, be a better place...

...Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus...

2010-07-09T11:58:00.000+07:00

...but he's got no hair and a 5-oclock shadow for a beard. He also goes by the name of "Jobs".

After surveying the field and finding nothing better than the Apple offering, I pre-ordered my 3G iPad (online, and from Thailand) and after several abortive attempt to take delivery, finally got my new machine up and running.

While spending the summer traveling the backroads of BC, Canada and running between hospitals to monitor aging parents, my iPad has been a lifesaver! Like many other users, I'd love to see a camera on-board, and it would be nice to be able to plug straight in via a USB port, for a 1st edition, it's a keeper! While attending a conference this week, I've used the my pad (named "CanOracle" -short for "Canadian Oracle") with a wireless keyboard as an alternative to a laptop, and the results have been beyond acceptable. I think I may permanently tether my Macbook Pro to a desk and use the iPad as my primary machine.

Onward!

My Year of the Tiger...

2010-02-26T15:49:00.000+07:00

...is off to a good start. The Wayback Machine has made the 1st cut in ABNA3 (Amazon Breakout Novel Contest) in the new YA division, and boy, does that feel good! Even though I've written off the contest as something of a lottery, with a single winner eventually "winning" a publishing contract from up to 5,000 entries, it was still a downer in ABNA1 and 2 to look for my name and not find it among the (long)listed titles.

It's been five years now since I decided to write in earnest, and this is my biggest boost so far. Oh, I had that excerpt from Mai Shangri-La published in Polar Expressions in 2007, but other than than, I'm building up my requisite (it seems) file of publisher and agent rejections. Some are kind, offering words of encouragement or bits of advice; others are pretty blunt. All part of the writers' babtism of fire, they say...

Next big date is March 23rd, when ABNA cuts to 500 "Quarterfinalists". I'm keeping my expectations low, but still, one can't help dreaming a bit of that big breakthrough. With growing global awareness of the fragility of the environment and the challenges ahead, maybe the time is at hand for us environmental "canaries in the coal mine". The challenge, of course, is to get the environmental message out subliminally, while telling a good story...

Still Edging Ahead...

2010-02-16T15:17:00.000+07:00

...towards the day when Universal access on a single Ubiquitous device that's lighter than a lead-brick will put the riches of the web truly within Every person's reach.

On review, Apple's new iPad didn't do it, but Hearst's new Skiff, although not quite there yet, moves the bar significantly closer to the mark. Go Hearst!

Mai Shangri-La Kindle Edition Now Available

2010-01-28T07:29:00.001+07:00

Just call me "A Day Late and a Dollar Short" Rubis...

...the VERY day Mai Shangri-La makes it to the Kindle platform is the day the Apple iPad "Kindle-killer" is released.

Sigh...

If you read ONE book this year...

2009-11-16T10:51:00.001+07:00

...make it Paolo Bacigalupi's "The Windup Girl".

Paulo Bacigalupi is a new writer to me, as his previous (award-winning) work has been largely short fiction, but with his first novel, he has absolutely NAILED the world I was trying to create in "Mai Shangri-La". Best of all, he's created his future world in Bangkok, as I did in "Mai Shangri-la". Worst 0f all, his vision of that world is, if anything, even darker than mine.

As a school librarian and a writer, I'm going to quickly correct my ignorance of Bacigalupi's previous work. I stand in awe of his vision of the future, of the intricately detailed world he has created in a single novel (it reminded me in this sense of "Dune"), and of the absolutely visceral nature of his writing. Move over Stephen King. I've got a new literary muse to follow!

Reading "the Windup Girl" won't make me give up on my own writing, and it won't make me try to emulate Mr. Bacigalupi's style, but it will make me rethink the old "show, don't tell" mantra. Bacigalupi is a master at this. I've lived in Bangkok for 25 years, but in apparently a single short visit before writing "the Windup Girl", he captured the very essence of what makes living in Bangkok a constant love/hate thing - and he shows what it could be like in 50 years.

Thanks so much, Paulo Bacigalup - for both entertaining the Hell out of me for the past week - and for giving me a new reason to get back to my own writing.

The Tipping Point...

2009-09-25T05:22:00.000+07:00

...on global recognition of the Freight Train bearing down on us.

NO, if I read Stuart H. Scott's body language correctly yesterday. Addressing students at International School Bangkok yesterday, Scott literally choked up when he reached a slide showing the impact on agricultural capacity in the US at a projected "best-case" future of 600 ppm atmospheric CO2 .

More on Scott, his Interfaith Declaration on Climate Change, and the Climate Project, as I learn more about them. They are just part of the cascade of opinion, research, prognostication and exhortation to action that are beginning to - finally, bring us to the tipping point on real action.

The question is, is it in time? Inform yourself, and then start taking action. NOW

Getting the word out...

2009-09-17T05:48:00.001+07:00

...one person at a time.

Unfortunately, I'm preaching to the choir, but hey, I'll "build my network", as my "techfolk" colleagues put it, whereever I can..

I wrote James Howard Kunstler a couple of days ago to tell him his new book had kept me up until midnight (a rare occurrence since I became a father, and grab my sleep when I can). If you aren't ready to take a chance on an unknown author, the do NOT miss "World Made by Hand ", in which Mr. Kunstler lays out a possible scenario much like mine in Mai Shangri-La, but much more elegantly put. My kudos to him for keeping up the energy on this front.

James Kunstler wrote me back within a day, and his words have given me fresh energy and hope. "Persevere", he says, and he's absolutely right. Those of us who have woken up to smell the coffee need to keep up the fight. Eventually we'll reach the critical mass needed to bring about real change.

I wrote a new blog-post in my "professional" blog yesterday too, in answer to the focus question for the launch of a new SUNY course we're running at International School Bangkok. The theme of my post was that there are strong competing issues with "flavor of the week" technology that we should be thinking about - the environment being right at the top of the list.

I compared weighing the importance of technology integration over other issues to Greg Craven's "big decision grid", and mentioned his book "What's the Worst that Can Happen: A Rationale Response to Climate Change". Surprisingly Greg Craven too, got back to me within 24 hours. It seems that even he, as a published author, obsesses over whether anyone is reading his book. Take heart, Greg, the word IS getting out. Slowly, slowly, but getting out.

Pass it forward....

Time Flies When Y'er Having Fun...

2009-08-21T08:29:00.000+07:00

... and MONTHS have slipped by since I've posted here - but three recent events have brought me back;

1) I actually got an email from someone who's read Mai Shangri-La and liked it! (perhaps being kind, she mentioned the heavy environmental front-loading, but goes on to give it a thumbs-up as a story) That got me thinking that I really need to keep MSL alive - and to move beyond it.

2) I came across a GREAT blog rebuttal to every climate-denier argument. Coby Beck has been blogging about the climate change since 2006, but this post, originally from July, 2008, at "A few things Ill-Considered" is a classic . How to Talk to a Climate Sceptic has it all.

3) I discovered a whole universe of "post-apocalyptic" fiction on what's becoming my favorite 1st stop reference center - Wikipedia. As a librarian, I know all the arguments for and against an open-source repositories of information, but for a quick and thorough overview of just about any topic, Wikipedia is, in my book, unbeatable.

So what do these three things have to do with the theme of this blog (which is ostensibly about pitching my novel Mai Shangri-La, but is really about the rapidly degrading global environment and our probable future if we follow this path to its logical conclusion.

The connection? I never really thought of Mai Shangri-La as a "post-apocalyptic" novel - but looking at it that way puts it in a whole new light - and opens up a whole new arena for promoting it. To that end, I registered with Wikipedia, and made my very own first contributions to that growing body of "open-source" information.

My first Wikipedia edit? I added Mai Shangri-la to the "ecological catastrophes" section of "List of apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction". Now to sit back and see if anyone decides that my little novel just doesn't belong up there with my favorites like Sean McMullen's GreatWinter Series, or Margaret Atwood's "Oryx & Crake"...

Reading for the Future

2009-04-19T09:23:00.000+07:00

I spent the Songkran vacation upcountry (well, it's looks like "downcountry" on a map, but it's distinctly UPCountry). The house is only about 20 years old, and so has power (usually) a telephone (sometimes). and a television which manages to deliver Thai soap-operas 24/7. There's even an instant-on water heater in the shower (when there's enough water pressure to turn it on). The last couple of times I've tried to connect to the web from there, though, I've spent way too much time tinkering with connections and setup to make the effort again. This time, I decided to just go Cold Turkey. I packed a briefcase, the backpack I usually haul all my laptops bits around in, and, for good measure, the conference bag picked up at Learning 2.0 - with BOOKS, and every day I treated myself to a couple new volumes.

First of all, I decided to catch up with some of my favorite novelists, and also to try on a couple of new ones. I started with Joe Hill's first novel (Heart-Shaped Box) and found out that indeed, the nuts don't fall far from the tree (and no offence to either King or Hill. I own every novel King's written and a lot of his short fiction. I think he's vastly under-rated as a novelist because of his selection of the macabre as his vehicle). Hill's prose is so much like his Dad's (Stephen King, if you didn't make the connection) that my reaction was a bit like it was on reading a Richard Bachman many years ago. ("Hey, this guy writes just like Stephen King!).

My appetite for the bizarre truly whetted, I went on to read the first two volumes of the Marvel version of King's "Dark Tower" opus ( the Gunslinger Born and The Long Road Home). Now there is a reading/viewing/imagining experience! I think I'm hooked on graphic novels.

Just to vary things a bit without really giving up on the theme, I read "Vampire Academy" by Richelle Mead. It's a YA, and as such, I couldn't fully relate, but it's good enough to recommend to my HS readers looking for a followup to Stephenie Meyer. Still, perhaps I should have reversed the order of the reads. After Hill and King, Mead was a bit of a letdown. I've still got a new Neil Gaiman in hand, though (Gaiman and Reaves' "Interworld"), and a day left in the break. I've saved the final chapter of "Heart-Shaped Box" but maybe I'll still get to another really thought-provoking read.

I did, of course, offer myself a bit of that along the way. To counter the spare plot and predictable dialog of the YA, I turned to one of my favorite writers of recent years. I missed his work when he first hit big, but since "The Road" (written, coincidentally, at pretty much exactly the same time I was doing the first draft of my own "road-novel" - this one) I've been a McCarthy fan, and the real joy in missing him in the '90's is going back to catch his earlier work.

This vacation, it was time to read "Cities of the Plain", the final book of McCarthy's Border Trilogy. As usual, McCarthy absolutely transports me to the lean, mean and sometimes desolate world of his 20th-century America, and in "Cities" I found a world that I could relate to on a truly personal level. I grew up in a small Canadian version of John Grady Cole's New Mexico ranch. I spent the first seventeen years of my life trying to escape the farm, and yet, oddly, I find myself in the new millenium, harkening back more and more to that world. Being globally connected is great, but McCarthy connects his characters to the world in an earthy way that resonates with me in ways that silicon sentences and digital data just can't replicate.

Heading into this break, I figured I also would have some time on my hands (like during the 13 1/2 hour drive down) when I wouldn't be able to read, but I could listen, so I downloaded several new titles to my phone (I don't have an iphone, so need to list on my O2). I recently listened to "One Second After" and decided I wanted something along that line, so I had 12 hours of "Apocalypse 2012" (Lawrence E. Joseph, 2009) to chew over.

But to provide a bit of timeless food for thought, I also tried out one of our new MP3 CD audiobooks. This gave me another 9 hours of "Zen and Now" a recently published followup to the classic "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance". For anyone who has ever read and mulled over Robert Pirsig's reflections on "Quality", "Zen and Now" is a great followup. Mark Richardson offers up his own road-trip along with unique insights into Pirsig's philosophy, and details of the Pirsig's personal journey that, as a rider myself (and with several motorcycling incidents detailed in my own book), I found absolutlely rivetting. A "must-read" (or listen. Actually, this is one of those titles that I find huge pleasure in going back to again and again to listen while the miles spool by). Don't miss it!

Of course (and not, in any way comparing myself to any of the above), do yourself another favor, and try out a new and yet unknown author and order your copy of "Mai Shangri-La" (Amazon). Do me a favor, and write an Amazon review if you find the book has any redeeming qualities. I'd love to write the final instalment of the Mai Shangri-la story, but unless the first book reaches and audience, I'll probably never get to it.

One Second After

2009-04-08T20:32:00.000+07:00

One Second After, by William R. Forstchen, is the first book in two years to have jarred me from my preoccupation with the threat of climate crash. For the first time since reading McCarthy's "The Road", I have had to admit that society's collapse could come from a completely different tangent than I have been obsessing about. It could come "like a bolt from the grey" as an EMP

If my postings here have not convinced you to buy my book, then go with an established writer, and get "One Second After". Read it in hard copy, on your Kindle, or listen to it in an audio version - but make it the NEXT book you add to your lifetime reading plan. You owe it to yourself, to your children, and to all our futures. The future is "Mai Shangri-La", but we'll never have to face it if Forstchen's dark vision comes to pass.

Earth's Hope - and Someone who's Inspired Mine

2009-03-30T10:09:00.000+07:00

His name is John D. Liu. You can Google him and find nearly 1000 references to his work over the past decade. But you need to go to the source to really get the message.

Check out either the blog or the website (in particular, the video "Lessons from the Loess Plateau" for "Earth's Hope", the foundation that John has most recently spearheaded in his efforts to disseminate the global ecological lessons he has learned in China and Africa over the past 2 1/2 decades. The image that fronts the website, says it all. We - every citizen of the world today, need to become contributors to "Earth's Hope" - before the promise of that hope is lost.

My novel, "Mai Shangri-La" (available at Amazon) is my rather dystopic view of one global future if we maintain "Business as Usual" in our relationship with the environment. John Liu has shown me that there is another possible future - and it literally is...Earth's Hope.

Educate yourself. Buy my book if you want to be depressed about what could face us. Join "Earth's Hope" if you want to become part of the solution!

Mai Shangri-La - available at

2009-01-30T14:52:00.001+07:00

Mai Shangri-La

- an Amazon Print On Demand Title

Why Did I Write "Mai Shangri-La" (Reprise)

2009-01-30T14:39:00.000+07:00

Somewhere in the deep, distant past, I wrote about this, but even if it's here in the Archives, it's time to bring the reasons to the top of the heap again.

Why did I write "Mai Shangri-La?

1) Because the world is going to Hell in a Handbasket, and most of us still have our heads in the sand about it. If I can convince ONE reader to be more aware of the possible consequences of modern society's "full speed ahead and damn the torpedoes" behavior - and to take some kind, any kind of concrete action to change his or her behavior, the effort will not have been in vain.

2) Because I want to be able to look my son in the eye when he asks me "where were you when the world was going into the toilet, daddy?" and at least say, "I was working the bathroom plunger, son, to keep the crap from overflowing..."

3) Because I've always wanted to create something that would live beyond me. I've collected books since I was a kid, and many of these old friends have now outlasted their authors - but that doesn't diminish their appeal to me.

4) Because I just had to give writing a shot; to see if I could be the next Frank McCourt. SOMEBODY has to be his succesor - and it would sure be nice to have a way to keep a bit of cash coming in after I hang it up as a teacher...

There was more - a lot more, but that's the gist of it.

Buy my first book to help give me that initial "Boost". Buy my SECOND one (in the pipeline now) only if the first gives you some pleasure, or insights into "the meaning of life" I'm not looking for (much) charity, here.. ;0)

Rob

Buy this Book...

2009-01-12T20:39:00.000+07:00

...and help a struggling new author establish a "real" presence on Amazon:)

I need a few sales - and more importantly, a few Reader Reviews, to fuel my next round of Agent Queries. I'm hearing that chapters 1-4 really need excising, but I'm busy right now getting the sequel (The Wayback Machine) ready to submit to ABNA 2 - and the deadline's close!

But as they didn't really ever say "It ain't over 'till it's Over." In the world of POD, I can keep tweaking this thing forever until I get it right - IF I've got a basic vehicle to work with. I think so - but I need some outside opinions. Looking forward to yours!

Time to Fish?

2008-12-01T20:02:00.000+07:00

...or Cut Bait?

As a participant in last year's ABNA contest, I recently received an invitation to join the second generation contest, with the entry date coming up fast at February 2nd. My first inclination was to get right to work on The Wayback Machine to whip in into shape for entry. But then, in working through the thread from last year's contestants that never left, I came across references to Authonomy. Being as how I'd just submitted my seventh draft of Mai Shangri-La to Createspace and basically decided that I was done with it except to let it sink or swim on its own merit, I decided to just have a look. Boy, did I get routed onto a alternative-destination siding!

In a nutshell, I joined up, posted four chapters from Mai Shangri-La, and waited for other authors to read my excerpts, give me a few "Attaboys" and then tell me to keep writing. Instead, I got several focussed, perceptive and mildly scathing, and most importantly, generally consistent critiques of the four chapters telling me, in different ways, that I was;

-neglecting the "story" at the expense of the "back story"
-overwriting the hell out of the story that I did manage to commit to paper
(too much description, too many adjectives, etc)
- relying on "tell" rather than "show" at almost every turn, and what is worst of all,
- committing the cardinal narrative writing sin of "infodump"

It seems that I was so passionate about the underlying messages I thought Reuben James's story were illustrating that I didn't trust his story toactually illuminate and reveal those messages. Seems I felt it necessary to hit readers over the head with my concerns for the environment, my dire prognostications for the future if we continue down the "business as usual" path, and my incandescent descriptive prose describing that dystopic future.

Talk about getting taken down a peg or five. To make a long story short, I'm hooked into posting on Authonomy at least several times a day, I'm looking at completely excising at least four chapters from the MSL manuscript, and I seem to be committing myself to an almost complete rewrite to address the concerns that the Authonomy folks have raised.

More on this new path as I follow it. The Wayback Machine's back on the back burner. Let's see if we can whip Mai Shangri-La into the shape that will garner the same consistency of critique from other writers that it has thus far - but this time with a positive spin.

Back to the drawing board!!! Who knows? Maybe MSL will be different enough when I'm done that it will be worth re-submitting to ABNA.

Stay tuned...

Really Close...

2008-11-13T05:31:00.000+07:00

...but of course I've said that before.

More importantly, I've decided that this time, I really am close enough (I'm halfway through a "cosmetic" seventh draft polish that I think is where I'll leave MSL for now and move on to other writing projects. I'll make brief notes here about it's status, but leave it at that. I'll also comment briefly on publication progress (and possibly on sales) on Twitter at http://twitter.com/rubisr

I'm not leaving the "Mai Shangri-La" concept behind, though. Instead, I'm going to begin posting here some of the thoughts, beliefs and concerns that have driven this project for the past three years, along with the background reading and activities that have kept it alive.

Underlying everything about MSL is a concern for the state of the environment and a fear, which is growing rather than receding, that we've already passed a number of both environmental and social Tipping Points which mean that the Future is going to be about mitigating the effects of two centuries of excess and learning to cope with the results rather than preventing them.

My first posting along this line will be a commentary on Thomas Friedman's new book "Hot, Flat and Crowded". Friedman's "The World is Flat" figured prominently in the original draft of MSL in how it shaped Reuben James's thinking, and the striking thing for me is how fast and how radically Friedman's emphasis has changed from touting the benefits of a "flat earth" to explaining how the flat earth concept will still be a factor in a world which is Hotter and More Crowded.

Hot, Flat and Crowded. Thomas L. Friedman. Farrar, Strous & Giroux, 2008

http://www.thomaslfriedman.com/files/imagecache/book_midsize/files/jackets/hot_flat_and_crowded.jpg

Jes' Webbin' It: Third Draft'll Nail It?

2008-11-11T19:25:00.000+07:00

Jes' Webbin' It: Third Draft'll Nail It?

Edging Toward Release...

2008-09-30T19:37:00.000+07:00

...and for the record, I've given up on the "Errata" page posted back in May. After four months of wordsmithing the MS page by page, paragraph by paragraph and line by line, I've found just TOO many edits to even contemplate listing them all. The Errata page goes dead, and along with it, the Replacement Book Offer I made there. Since I pulled the MS after selling just a single copy, I don't feel that anyone's going to be cheated out of anything here.

Suffice it to say that the whole "6th-draft" experience was humbling indeed. I begin to see more clearly with every pass through the MS the value of a professional editor to identify weaknesses and errors and get the author moving on them. By the time I completed the 6th draft run-through (with the grammar checker finally turned on, to point out my many grammatical and syntactical sins:(), I had found and corrected a minimum of 2,000 errors in the MS.

Generally, my errors - so easy to see now, with the benefit of two years of "cooling off" since I completed the first draft - fall into five categories, all of which I know better than to indulge in. The big categories are;

Simple typos and word substitutions that the spelling checker didn't pick up (their for they're, to for too, etc) This one puzzles me. I must have had the spelling checker turned off - a lot..
Passive Voice - I had no idea I so often resort to long, contorted passive sentences ("the box was packed with/He was slow in climbing to his feet, etc)
"Null words" - LOTS of instances where I gratuituously used "that" and "which".
Sentences beginning with "And" or "But". Really glaring stuff! I remember writing many of these, and thinking that (see, see?) I was doing so consciously, to add emphasis to the statement. But (see again?) there were just way too many of these. Many of these were edited to create compound sentences (and note the passive voice...)
Run-on sentences. I had no idea I was such a wordy writer (well, actually, I did, but I thought I had already addressed that...). The good folks at Microsoft must have pointed out three hundred incidences of "Long Sentence - consider revising", and by combining those "And" and "But" sentences, I just created even more of these.

The bottom line is, I'm no longer very confident about anything regarding the novel. I just checked CreateSpace, and note that the book is now shown with the status as "Retired". I assume I can resurrect it, but I'm not quite ready yet. After getting burned with the first release, I really don't want to make the same mistake again - just one more pass through to check that I really did mean to write all those Sentence Fragments...

ClustrMap

2008-09-18T22:20:00.000+07:00

I just added ClustrMaps to this site, and it's interesting watching markers beginning to come in from around the world. I guess that these are just random hits from people trolling the web for something to do with climate, weather or the environment, but they are proof that the "long tail" really does work! Now if only it'll work as well when the book's actually released in spreading the word and building a reader base. Stranger things have happened!

IF you end up at this site, do leave a comment, even if it's to dis my layout or berate me for running a blog on a book by an unknown author that's not yet even released.

On that note, the MS text for Draft 6 is now done, with over a thousand edits hopefully moving it up a notch from badly flawed and unedited to finished to the extent that a novice writer can. If you're interested in speculative fiction, particularly with an environmental subtext, watch for Mai Shangri-La available for shipping on Amazon by mid-October.

Another month trickles by...

2008-09-04T05:42:00.000+07:00

...and Mai Shangri-La's still - Not!

It's been a challenging new year, both personally and professionally, and work on brining Main Shangri-La to a (tentative) conclusion has languished. It's not that I'm not working on it. I grab a few minutes every day to pore over another couple of pages winkling out more of those irritating typos, grammatical errors and compositional weaknesses. The problem is that it has been, quite literally a few minutes each day instead of a few hours. With the amount of work yet to do, it's likle to be months, rather than weeks more to bring it to conclusion.

I've got about 100 pages left to go. The first 150 pages are finished in electronic draft, but beyond that, the edits are just pencilled into my 5th draft proof copy. I'd better not lose that copy, or I'll be like Hemingway and his famous lost novel in Paris. It's likely never to see the light of day.

But no, that's not going to happen. I AM going to plow through the last 1oo pages. I AM going to get the electronic MS tweaked and sent off to CreateSpace. I AM going to finish this up soon and move on to other projects. I am...

Temporarily out of stock...

2008-08-02T14:57:00.000+07:00

...is a euphemism for - It's not yet ready for Prime Time!!!! :(

It's been a while between postings. 30,000 miles of air travel, reintroducing my year-old son to his Canadian family, and catching up on maintentance at his "piece of the rock" in Canada has kept me away from the keyboard (this blog), and largely from further review (of the hardcopy)of the recently released fifth draft of Mai Shangri-La since June.

In the 60% of the MS that I have reviewed, though, I've found FIVE HUNDRED more edits that need to be completed before I can re-release MSL for sale. If you've been following this blog and wondered if MSL has gone to that big slush-pile in the sky, the answer is NO! It's just gestating a bit more. The story's been told. Now it just needs a final polish.

The Sixth, and, I hope, final draft of Mai Shangri-La should be ready for upload to CreateSpace by the end of August. I'll need to order a new Proof copy and then approve that before the book will go back on Sale. Stay Tuned!!!

The Perils of "Going it Alone..."

2008-05-26T08:33:00.000+07:00

Mai Shangri-La has just appeared on Amazon, and I'm thrilled - but I'm in a quandry. I've discovered it needs a critical final "polish" and I KNOW I should put it on hold right now - in case anyone out there really buys it. I KNOW I shouldn't release it in a less-than-perfect format.

But it's the last couple of weeks of the school year, and a final polish just is NOT going to get done until summer - so I've decided to leave it out there and to make a gift-book offer to anyone who buys this copy (if they notify me either through this blog or by email, of three undocumented "errata". I'm assuming that the "long-tail" of POD publication is not going to bring in a lot of buyers - and so there won't be many of these May20th editions ever actually printed.

Who knows? When Mai Shangri-La becomes a best-seller:):):), maybe these editions will become Collectors' Items!!! -rjr-

Errata - Mai Shangri-La

2008-05-24T10:37:00.000+07:00

If you've paid full-price for this book in the May 20th release, I have an offer for you. I'll send a Gift-Copy of the final, polished (CreateSpace) edition of the book to any reader that adds at least THREE new errors for final correction in this Errata" posting. Submit your corrections either as Comments to this post or email to me at rubisr@isb.ac.th, along with your name and the mailing address to which I can send the Gift copy. And THANKS! It's been a great experience, and I look forward to your help in bringing it to a final, polished conclusion. - rjr-

ERRATA - Mai Shangri-La

(error-corrections to the May 20,2008 Createspace publication)

Author's Note: par.3, l.5, missing "inevitabe" following "arguably"

Chapter I

p. 1. - paragraph4, line6, add "the" before "diaphanous"

p. 2. - par3, l4, space between "twentyhours"; par.4, l9, close quotes on "Roaring 20's"

p. 3. - par2, l11, italicize "the Great Leveling"

Chapter II

p. 9. - par1, l3, "know" to "knew"

p. 10. - par1,l9, "an ever-changing" to "a never static"

p. 11. - par2,l5, cut "to the" before "of the tower"

p. 14 - par2, correct indent second line.

Chapter III

p. 15 - last line, last word, "seven" to "four"

p. 16 - par4,l9, "up to the" for "up toe the"; par5, l1, cut "," after "Strange," he"

p. 17 - par1,l7, "still" for "held"; par1,l9, cut "still" before "offered"

p. 18 - par5,l11, "protecting" to "protected"

p. 19 - par2,l4, cut "by" before "flu";par3,l3, cut "of" before "down";par3,l9,"as it was" to "but";par3,l10, "as" after "gold" to "where";par3,l11,full stop after "sea";cut "where apparently; new sentence begins with "The air there was relatively"

p. 20 - par.1,l5, "clicks" for "miles";par1,l14 "The majority of" for "Most of";par1,l18,cut "that had", change "greeted" to "greeting";par3,l7,Cut "Although", begin sentence with "He";l9, add "but" before "all in all".

p.21 - par2, l2, cut "had" before "barreled";par2,l13, "mile and hour" to "mile-an-hour";par4,l4, "as" after "stupidity" to "when".

p.22 - par2,l1, "importantly" to "important"

p.23 - par2,l13, cut "that" before "left";par3,l4, period after "through" to outside quotes.

***

Dreamory, 1994

p. 293 - par3, l. 7, "taxi-drives" to "taxi-drivers"; l.8 "comfortabl" to "comfortable"; l15, "buse" to "buses"; par 4, l.3 del "sh", add "breathing" following "are"

p. 294 - par4, l.5 - replace "Reuben" with "he". Dreamories do not name the character.

p. 295 - par 2, l12 - move "off" before "into space"; l15 - cut "he now sees" & change to "that's"

p. 296 - par2, l2nd from last, cut "," after "turn";par3,l3, "Wwhat's" to "What's";par5, last line, "awayt" to "away".

Chapter XXVII

p. 300 - par1, l9, cut "that";par4, l6, "here" to "he";par5, l9, add "," after "port".

HOLD the PRESSES!

2008-05-24T09:36:00.000+07:00

...well, it's a little too late for that, as the book's already been released to Amazon and I've ordered a dozen copies for a few chosen friends who've agreed to be my "First Readers". But last night, while thumbing through it, thinking, for the hundredth time, "Wow. It's hard to believe it's actually finished," I realized that actually, it wasn't.

"What's this?" I exclaimed as my I scanned p. 293, one of the "Dreamories" I particularly enjoyed originally writing, but then reworked extensively in draft 5. "Comfortabl," with no "e?"

I grabbed a pencil and circled the offending typo. "How did I do that?" I wondered. "I ran a spell-checker on the damned thing a dozen times. It would have picked this up for sure!"

I went back to the to of the page.

"OUCH!" I yelped. "Another one!" "Taxi-drives. Should be "Taxi-drivers!" Another pencilled circle. I kept reading, finding two MORE glaring typos. FOUR errors on one page!!!!

How could this have happened? How had I missed a page so glaringly unfinished? What do I do now? The book is already for sale at CreateSpace, and I've initiated sales on Amazon. I've ordered those dozen copies for First Readers. I've emailed a select group of colleagues to crow about finishing my first book...

My first inclination was to go directly to CreateSpace and freeze the publication. But then I thought again. It's nearly summer break. There's no time to correct the errors, order a new Proof Copy, review and approve it again, and get new copies before summer. And I want to get some other eyes on the book. I've spent almost three years "writing with the door closed", as Stephen King calls it, and it's time to open the door on the damned thing, warts and all.

And so I'm leaving it up on CreateSpace and letting it go for sale on Amazon - but I'm going back to do a full re-read myself, and I'll keep a log here of all the errors I discover. At the same time, I'll ask my "First Readers" two additional favors. Along with offering me some general constructive feedback on the premise, the plot and the character development, I'll ask if they'll note specific grammatical, spelling and formatting errors, either by marking up their copies of the book, by dropping me a note to advise me of these, or by posting comments to this blog.

It's a lot to ask, but the people who've agreed to be "First Readers" have been really supportive of the project so far. I'm hopeful that they'll see this as an opportunity to help me polish this thing into a really finished product that we can all take some pride in.

And so, in a new post, I'm going to set up an "Errata" post. I'll note, page by page, the remaining errors I've picked up myself, for cleanup once I've completed a full re-read (this is a busy time of the year, so it's going to take, at a guess, a month). With First Reader input, I'll then put the manuscript on "Hold", resubmit the (final?) polished copy, and then, of course, go through the process of ordering yet another proof copy and, hopefully, on receipt, taking the book off "hold" and back up for sale. This, of course, is one of the really nice things about Print on Demand. It's an ephemeral product, and as such, I can hold to a baker's dozen the number of copies that go out with all these remaining errors. If my First Readers give it a thumbs-up, the final draft will include the cumulative corrections of a half-dozen people rather than just me.

SO - If you're still with me here, something about this process has interested you. I hope you'll join me in this next phase, which will be to get a final polish on this thing, so I can move on to other projects.

And why did this happen? I think I've got the answer. I ended up doing some pretty extensive rewrites of several chapters in Draft 5 - and I did NOT run a Spell and Grammer check after completing the last of these. In fact, I didn't run a spellcheck in the last two weeks I worked on it. So, I'm guessing I introduced new errors in my final rewrites, and in my eagerness to finish and finally get the project off to CreateSpace, I forgot a final check. Egg on Face - bigtime!

Oh, for an editor, a professional who does this for a living, and could probably spot these compositional faux pas in a flash! As the writer, I'm beginnning to really believe that as I read and reread passages I've been over a dozen times, that I start seeing what I "meant" rather than what I really committed to the page.

But hey, who ever said this was going to be easy! Let's not give up when we're this close. Onward!

Mai Shangri-La - AVAILABLE NOW!

2008-05-20T19:51:00.001+07:00

Mai Shangri-La is now available from these online outlets;

http://www.createspace.com/3336431 - and on Amazon at;

http://www.amazon.com/Mai-Shangri-Robert-J-Rubis/dp/1434861627/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1211805076&sr=1-1

Or just go to Amazon and search for "Robert J. Rubis" or "Mai Shangri-La"

This is all new to me - so visit often if you're interested in the process of bringing a novel concept to fruition and publication in the emerging world of Print on Demand ~ rjr 19/05/08

Mai Shangri-La - NOT (quite) a Vanity Press pub...

2008-05-12T20:07:00.001+07:00

Mai Shangri-La really IS almost ready for release! Watch here for details on where to buy the book. I"ve completed tinkering with it and am just waiting for my final proof copy to arrive. Hopefully, I'll find the result satisfactory and release the book for sale on CreateSpace and Amazon before the end of the month.

I've just reviewed the distinctions between Vanity Publishing, Self-Publishing and Publish-on-Demand. I'm going to take the high road here and state, for the record, that I don't consider Mai Shangri-La to be a Vanity publishing product. It's a self-published "Print-on-demand" title, and, assuming that my layout and cover looks as good on the actual copy as it does on the PDF files my wife helped me to lay out and format, it's a work I'm proud of. I can't deny that I'd love to see MSL published by a traditional press, but I'll hope that the work will speak for itself and provide the next level of positive promotion to get my work into the public eye.

If YOU get a look at Mai Shangri-La and can provide a positive, constructive reader-review, I'll be pleased to offer you an early signed copy of the book; on my nickel. My profit margin with CreateSpace is very small - but I want to get my work in circulation and I believe in the power of the "Long Tail". YOUR positive Reader Review will become my primary advertising tool. Thanks in advance for your support.

Rob

Why Print on Demand (POD)?

2008-04-10T21:12:00.000+07:00

I wrote this post in an earlier incarnation of a "writing" blog that I decided was neither elegant enough in appearance or "meatier" enough in content. I'm much happier with the current layout and except for not yet figuring out how to group postings under different topics like I can in the Edublogs blogs I set up for my work, I'm content with the content so far. For now, this one seems like a "keeper"...But what does this have to do with Print on Demand?

I became a Dad a few months ago. Although this event was not entirely unanticipated (we had tried for three years), when it did happen, it took me almost completely by surprise. Suddenlly, every routine I had established over a lifetime of childless adulthood was turned on its ear. The first to go, it seemed was the writing regimen I had established only two years ago. Luckily, by the time my son made his appearance, I had my first book (Mai Shangri-La) "in the can", so to speak, and my second book at what I estimated was 70% complete. So much for good intentions.

In the nearly ten months now since Jr.'s birth, I have completed the first draft of the second book ("The Wayback Machine"), but the second draft rewrite of Mai Shangri-La has languished - and my marketing efforts have pretty much dried up on this, my first completed novel.

"Too long for a first novel," said one publisher.
"Too complicated," said one prospective agent.
"The flashback technique isn't compelling," said another agent.
"Not my kind of book," said a third, although I HAD carefully (I thought) researched the market to match potential agents with my genre and writing style.

And so, I find myself now with TWO completed manuscripts, and, at the moment, nothing in the way of a really promising publishing prospect in the works. This begs the question, "Should I launch the new book that's been simmering away on the back burner ever since I was halfway through Mai Shangri-La, or should I concentrate on getting something into print to confirm my belief that making the break into the publishing world will, ultimately be achievable.

To cut through this problem, I've decided to finish the third draft of Mai Shangri-La and let it go with the POD service. Although I'll need to spend a good bit of time on promotional work (since I'm a complete unknown at this point), I think that putting a wrap on MSL will free me to begin work on any one of several new projects that have been bubbling on the back-burner for some time (ike MSL did - for ten years....)

I'm not a whiner by nature, but if anyone was ever to read this post who can offer a new, sure-fire suggestion for making that first big break into traditional publishing, I"m all ears....

Third Draft'll Nail it?

2008-04-09T19:32:00.000+07:00

Well, they never said it was easy. Working through the Proof Copy of Mai Shangri-La has been something of a humbling experience. I finished the first draft in a whirlwind six-month stint where I never missed a writing day, and then, following Stephen King's advice in "On Writing", I put it aside for several months while I went on to other writing projects. Then I printed a hard-copy, read it over again and cleaned up the remaining punctuation errors, grammatical faux pas and basic story detail.

I guess I came back to it too soon, though, because when I submitted the second draft to the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Contest, I actually thought it was a pretty clean copy. It's only now, when I'm actually holding what feels like a "real" novel in my hands, that I can so clearly see the many rough edges that still need polishing. I'm almost glad now that I got knocked out of ABNA early on. The MS needs a LOT more work!

And so it's back to the beginning, doing a line-by-line edit and review, rechecking, of course, for things like punctation that's still buggy and adverbs that still dangle obtrusively (see what I mean?) following verbs that aren't specific enough, but this time also stepping back a bit and scanning for an overal narrative flow and story cohesiveness. So far, I'm finding an average of four obvious edit requireemnts per page, and these are taking me anything from five to fifteen minutes to fix, so quickly doing the math, I see that I've got about a hundred hours of third draft work here before I'll be satisfied that I've finally got the thing ready to release.

My intent is to get this all done by the end of April, to submit the new draft to CreateSpace, and then to start promoting the book through every contact I can muster. I'm not trying to get rich here (I think my royalty on a $19.95 sticker price is 93 cents), but I would like to either sell enough copies to be able to consider myself a published writer and move on to other things - or attract the attention of an agent or publisher who would offer to represent or publish me, respectively. But you know what they say about Good Intentions...

Having just complete the first draft of the second story (the Wayback Machine), I'm also finding a lot of potential for linking back from the second story to the first, and in some cases, this means I need to set these links up a little better in Mai Shangri-La so that bringing them out in Wayback makes more sense. Chalk up another few dozen midnight-oil sessions. Sigh...

It's REAL!!!

2008-04-08T10:51:00.000+07:00

So far, so good, as they say. The Proof Copy of my first "baby" arrived the other day. It badly needs cover art and a quick flip through reveals that it definitely needs another line-by-line edit. How could I have missed so many close-quotation marks and periods? What's my reader supposed to make of unattributed quotations when I can no longer keep track of the speaker? Where did I pick up the annoying habit of almost always using an interesting adjective a second time within a paragraph or two of it's first appearance? And why didn't I notice THAT rather glaring editorial gaffe on the second draft?

In spite of its warts, though, it's an actual, 379 page paperback novel. It says so, right there on the cover!

Mai Shangri-La
A Novel
Robert J. Rubis

So far, CreateSpace has definitely lived up to their end of our "agreement". They've taken my uploaded file, laid it out in a 6X9 format, added a cover, and bound it in a finished product. The rest is just tweaking. I'll hope to complete the next round of editing within the month, and hopefully by the end of April, I'll have my first book available (Print-on-Demand) for sale. Exciting stuff!

Watch for "Mai Shangri-La" on your CreateSpace homepage (and hopefully on Amazon, too) sometime soon.

Mai Shangri-La: the Cover Blurb

2008-04-07T18:50:00.000+07:00

Reuben James Runquist is finally facing facts; at eighty, he's stuck with a retirement condo in an environment that is decidedly "Mai" ("Not" in Thai) Shangri-La. Global climate has "flipped" raising sea levels seven meters over turn of the millenium levels, plagues have killed hundreds of millions, and worldwide transportation and commercial infrastructures have collapsed. Reuben is reduced to s subsistence existence in the high-tech but questionably secure "Panic Room" of his barricaded condo in Pattaya.

Reuben needs to escape if he's going to truly live out his "golden years" in relative peace and security. By now, though, the Thai central plain is awash in a new inland sea, and Hong Kong tycoon Stanley Lee is ratcheting up the pressure to acquire rights to Reuben's new virtual reality game/novel "StimSim". Reuben's always been his own man, but what are his options? How can he escape global warming AND the clutches of a man who won't take no for an answer?

***

(many thanks to Joan Rickard of Author Author Literary Agency for her straightforward advice on drafting a workable cover blurb. This is approximately what went on the back cover of the 1st Proof Copy at CreateSpace, and I haven't yet come up with a better draft)

Why did I write "Mai Shangri-La"?

2008-04-01T08:31:00.000+07:00

Five Big Reasons...

I've always wanted to be a writer (haven't we all?)
I'm becoming increasingly concerned about the future of the planet - and need to find something I can do that might influence more than just the kids I teach to do the right thing
I'm still healthy, involved in my life, and planning to live to 100 (even without dramatic life-extension intervention as seen by some futurists). I've got a vested interest in trying to make a difference for the future
At 54 (when I launched the book), I was about to become an official "senior" in some circles, and mandatory retirement is beginning to loom large. I need a second career; something engaging, challenging, meaningful - and hopefully at least somewhat remunerative. My overseas teaching "provident fund" (no pension plan) is not going to allow me to live the lifestyle to which I've become accustomed...
Although he was not a factor when I wrote the book, now that I'm trying to market it, my nine-month old son IS. He needs a stable family and a secure future. He also needs a positive role-model for living a life as "part of the solution rather than part of the problem".

What is "Mai Shangri-La"

2008-03-31T19:18:00.001+07:00

Mai Shangri-La is my first novel. As a career Teacher-Librarian, a new father and a late-awakening environmentalist, I wrote this novel in response to a convergence of concerns and ideas involving Global Warming, impending retirement (from my first, or primary career) and "Fifty-something" Fatherhod. More about this in another post.

"Shangri-La", as most reasonably well-read people know, is the mythical kingdom created by James Hilton in his 1933 novel "Lost Horizon". In it's modern usage, a "Shangri-La" can be any place of great beauty or tranquility or having qualities that might lead to inner fulfilment of a life's desires. If you're not familiar with the term, or the novel, check out the wikipedia entry at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shangri-la.

Mai Shangri-La has been the working title from early on, although the very early chapters went through several different titles as I honed in on my themes. The title is intended as a play on words, contrasting what you might hear as "MY Shangri-La" with the reality of "Mai", meaning "NOT"in Thai. Literally, then, the title of the novel is "Not Shangri-la".

The basic premise of this novel is that the world we face in the coming decades is likely to be decidedly NOT a "Shangri-La". To provide a story framework upon which to hang this idea, I built on the naive faith of the western Baby-Boomer in a "Golden Years" period after retirement set against the decidedly frightening scenarios being presented ever more stridently by climate modelers and research scientists.

Reuben James Runquist is a Baby-Boomer, who, at 80, and living in his own version of a retirement "Shangri-La", finally realizes that if he really is to enjoy his Golden Years, he needs to escape from the "Land of Smiles" and return to his native Canada. Unfortunately, he finds himself alone and ill-equipped to make the arduous trek halfway around a world newly drowned under seven meters of continental ice-sheet meltdown; a world in which Man's 20th century hubris has been replaced by a decidedly 21st century gritty reality brought about by personal self-delusion, commercial and corporate greed, global pestilence and digital infrastructure collapse.

Mai Shangri-La is not, however, a post-apocalyptic novel in the traditional sense. It is a novel which explores Mankind's most powerful motivations, his core values and his potential to rise above circumstance and create a life worth living in spite of, or perhaps because of adversity. Mai Shangri-La is conceived as the opening piece in a three book series examining life in the 21st century approximately 25 years, 50 years, and 100 years from today.

The second book (the Wayback Machine) is completed in first draft and the third is is framed conceptually but no nothing has yet been "committed to paper" as the saying still goes. Whether the final chapter ever gets written is dependent on whether Mai Shangri-La finds an audience and whether Danny and Cathy's story (from the Wayback Machine) calls me back to finish documenting what Reuben James started in Mai Shangri-La. -rjr

Blog Migration

2008-03-31T19:18:00.000+07:00

This will be my third cut at writing a personal blog about turning to personal writing, about the process of "becoming" (hopefully) a "writer", and about the motivations behind Mai Shangri-La as a story, an allegory and perhaps a cautionary tale.

I decided to drop the first blog because it focussed on reading and writing at my place of work, an international school in Asia. As I wrote, I found that more and more I was presenting personal perspectives and opinions on issues I found personally compelling rather than perspectives which related in a meaningful way to the interests and needs of my students.

My second attempt was better (I thought) but still contained artifacts from the first (including the initials of my school in the URL - I had just renamed and refocussed the blog). My hope with this one is to make a clean break; to completely separate my personal writing from my professional interests and responsibilities as a HS Teacher-Librarian. I also wanted to name the blog after my novel. As my "Proof" copy from CreateSpace nears a third-draft cleanup/rewrite, I'm beginning to think about promotional strategies.

For the moment, I've opted the POD route, rationalizing that I'm saving trees, actually accepting for now that my premise has not been compelling enough, or my writing interesting enough, to attract the serious interest of either a literary agent or a publisher. In the long run, however, I do, of course, hope to "break into" the print publishing world, and the POD edition of Mai Shangri-La has become one of my principal sales-tools. This blog will become the "author's notes" for that edition, and hopefully, a vehicle for introducing the novel to a potential readership, and possibly for continuing an exploration of the themes and issues raised in the novel.

Welcome to my "writer's world".

Rob Rubis
March 29, 2008