The First Cut is the Deepest...

...but the NEXT one's the one to watch for ;0)

Following a full-on month of re-reading, cutting, revising, cutting, reorganizing, cutting, rethinking, cutting, and still more cutting (superfluous adjectives, gratuitous adverbs, and unnecessary uses of "that"), I submitted my new  leaner, meaner and, I think, much more readable version of "The Wayback Machine" to ABNA 5 in the YA division.

This version (now titled "The Way Back") shows the results of five years of gestation and development. It kicks off with more punch, introduces the characters more quickly, and gets the story rolling much more efficiently.  My first 5000 words really ought to leave the reader thinking, "So what happens next?"

So far, so good. The new book made the first cut, moving one to the quarter-finals (1000 of 5000 original entries), to be announced March 20th. That's great news, because the First Cut is made solely on the basis of the 300 word "pitch", and now professional reviewers will read the first 5000 words to decide which 250 novels go forward. If my "first 5000" is a much improved as I think it is, maybe, just maybe, we'll make it to the quarter finals.

I've been here before. A couple of years ago an entry made the first cut, but died there. I rationalized that with a thousand entries, many or even most of which are actually publishable, it's actually just a dice-roll about what moves on. So this time I'm not holding my breath, but I have to admit, staying in the game this far has my pulserate up just a bit. Stay tuned for March 20th....

2012: the Beginning or the End?...

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....

If you read ONE book this year...

...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.

Reading for the Future

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

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.

Why did I write "Mai Shangri-La"?

Five Big Reasons...

1. I've always wanted to be a writer (haven't we all?)
2. 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
3. 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
4. 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...
5. 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".