Category Archives: Books/Literature

Books/Literature

On critics…

Thanks to the internet, nowadays the old expression “everyone’s a critic” is more apt than it has ever been.  Take me as an example.  You don’t have to go terribly far in my previous entries to find my opinions of movies, television shows, music, etc. etc.

When I was younger, I would relish “taking down” works I considered deeply flawed.  Looking back at my attitudes, I can’t help but wonder why I found such relish in doing so.  I don’t think I was being a contrarian…I found enjoyment in many popular -and not so popular- films.  On the other hand, there were beloved blockbusters that I couldn’t believe or understand were popular (one big example is the original Star Wars) while there were plenty of more obscure films that didn’t pass my taste test.

The other day, I received my first truly “negative” review of one of my books.  The review was posted on Amazon.uk and the poster, D. J. Ketchin, was reviewing my short story collection Shadows at Dawn.  The book has received only two reviews so far, the first by Puna J. on the regular (U.S.) Amazon.com (4 out of 5 stars) and Ketchin’s (2 out of 5 stars).

The two critics offer clearly different, yet at times, interestingly similar opinions of my work.  On the similar side, they both feel the short story collection was too short.  I can completely agree with that.  Shadows at Dawn is a slight book, even if it does feature 14 complete stories (15 on the Kindle version).  Then again, of the books I have available via Kindle, it is priced at a very low .99 cents (this comes to a little over 6 cents a story).

Their second point of agreement they appear to share is that both were more interested in reading the science fictional stories than the mystery ones.  D. J. Ketchin states it bluntly: “too much of a crime emphasis for me.”  Puna offers a somewhat similar take, stating “only about half a dozen of these stories qualify as science fiction”.  Puna is indeed quite right, of the 15 stories presented, 7 were “mystery” stories, only very slightly less than half.

Though the two share essentially the same opinions of Shadows at Dawn, their conclusions wind up diverging considerably.  While Ketchin felt that there was “too little sci-fi” and therefore the book was “too dull”, Puna felt that the stories, despite not being as science fictional as she wanted, were “all good. I am glad I gave this book a chance and read it, it was worth my time.”

Two readers that I assume are on either side of the Atlantic offering two similar -yet ultimately very different- opinions of my short story collection.  I’ve noted before of my suspicions upon seeing certain books filled with hundreds of (mostly) glowing reviews.  I know there are those who can be paid to “bump up” the number of positive reviews on a work.

Myself?  I enjoy reading well thought out reviews of my works.  Clearly I would love for whatever I write to be universally adored and net me millions upon millions of fans…but realistically, I know that whatever I do, however much work I may put into it, there will be those who like it and those who read the exact same thing and it just isn’t their cup of tea.

So thank you, Ketchin and Puna for your opinions of Shadows at Dawn.  Even if one of you didn’t like it as much as the other, I’m nonetheless pleased to have “real people” out there reading my works.

And, Ketchin?  I’ll try better next time… 😉

Shadows at Dawn Cover

Books/Literature

Corrosive Knights and writing thoughts…

Corrosive MACN

There’s an old saying that everyone dreams of showing off a book they wrote but no one likes to actually sit down and write it.  The act of writing, especially for something like a novel, involves considerable work and effort on the author(s) part and, without sounding too judgmental, not everyone has either the desire and patience to go through with this.

Yet using the above statement, it is my belief that many people out there nonetheless have an impression that writing books is not “hard work”.

An entertaining, at least to me, as the TV show Castle is, it is guilty of showing this attitude.  The show, for those unfamiliar with it, involves Richard Castle, a popular mystery writer, who tags along with the New York Police Department (specifically the very beautiful detective Kate Beckett) and helps her solve crimes.  One of the more vulgar (though I believe on target) jibes against the show and its portrayal of what an author does is that in Castle we have someone who seemingly “shits out books” in his spare time, whenever the mood hits him, and spends the bulk of his day in the detective field.

But let’s not blame the entire attitude on shows like Castle.  I believe part of this feeling that authors don’t do “a lot” of hard work may be due to the time it takes audiences to experience it.  As an audience you “experience” a work in its final, completed stage and it often doesn’t take all that much time to do so.  For music, you experience songs in the few minutes it takes to play them.  With a painting or any illustration, you can take in the final work in a matter of seconds and longer if you want to scrutinize parts of it.  With a novel and depending on your motivation, you could read it in one sitting or perhaps over the course of a week or two, and often in your free time.  But just because you can experience an artistic work relatively quickly doesn’t mean that the author(s) of said works took a similar amount of time to create it.  There are authors whose works have taken decades to complete, including some of my own.

For me writing a book not only involves many, many hours of physical work typing in front of a computer, but also heavy thoughts about what it is I’m trying to put forward during almost every waking hour of the day.  Believe it or not, the later statement is absolutely true:  When I’m deeply involved in my latest novel (and for the past five or six years I’ve been on one after the other) thoughts regarding scenes I’m working on constantly bubble in my mind.  It is rare that a moment during the day passes without at least one or two stray thoughts about some bit of dialogue or how to improve on a scenario or whether something I wrote needs to be revisited.

In a way, its like suffering from an Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, only its me trying as hard as I can to make my current work as good as it can possibly be.

Which, in my very long winded way, brings me to the fifth Corrosive Knights novel.  I’m currently on the second full draft and roughly 1/4th of the way through the actual re-write.  I believe I mentioned it before that the first and second drafts of my novels tend to be the toughest to do.  The first draft because I’m laying out entirely new material one page at a time and building it up as I go along and trying my best to make every new scenario as fresh as possible

The second draft involves carefully going over everything I did before, first by reading the novel carefully all the way through and putting a considerable amount of notations on each page about what’s missing or what can be improved.  After that’s done, I spend many hours before the computer doing all those fix ups.  During this phase I’m trying to make sure there are no extraneous scenes within my book and that the characters and situations presented flow in a logical way.  I’m also determined to make sure all action, suspense, mystery, romantic, or humorous elements “work” as well as I can possibly make them.

So far, so good, though there are still a couple of weeks (at least) before this draft is done and effectively start up all over again with the third draft.  Then the fourth.  Usually, by the time I get to this stage I’m dealing less with story issues and much more with grammatical/spelling problems.  These later drafts tend to be the easiest to correct both on paper and in the computer.

So I’m headed back to the novel now.  I’ll keep you informed as each stage of the re-write moves along.

Books/Literature

What Happened to Orson Scott Card?

Fascinating article by Steven Lloyd Wilson and appearing on Salon.com concerning his views of author Orson Scott Card, until recently best known for the novel (and soon to be released movie adaptation of same) Ender’s Game:

http://www.salon.com/2013/03/07/end_game_for_orson_scott_card_partner/

For those who choose to skip the article (it is interesting, however, and I highly recommend giving it a read!), Orson Scott Card has gotten himself in more than a little hot water of late because of his apparent very vocal dislike of homosexuality and the concept of gay marriage (Some would call it outright homophobia).  For years now I’ve heard vague rumors about the various comments he made at different science fiction conventions…and what was once only vague rumors grew and grew until it was pretty clear what Mr. Card’s opinions regarding homosexuality were.

The issue regarding the author’s opinions reached something of a peak when it was announced DC Comics had hired Mr. Card to write a Superman story.  To be blunt, comic book fans were aghast at the notion that he could be hired to write a character whose essence is protecting the oppressed.  How could Superman, such a shining symbol of all that’s good, be written by someone whose opinions were so terribly ugly?  Soon enough the controversy reached a boiling point and several comic book shops refused to stock Mr. Card’s upcoming Superman book.  The heat only grew from there and eventually the artist assigned to the project dropped out.  Now it appears DC Comics has nixed the story’s publication entirely.

Unfortunately, just before this controversy became so public, an Ender’s Game film was greenlit and subsequently made.  It is scheduled for release later this year and, if I were one of the investors or on the staff of the studios behind it, I’d be more than a little worried. If potential audiences had such a negative reaction to Mr. Card’s involvement in Superman, how will they react when the Ender’s Game movie is released in November?

Years ago I realized that sometimes you separate the artist from their art.  The book/movie/film/painting/tv show you may absolutely love might be the work of someone who, should you encounter them at any sort of social function, might find repugnant.  I’ve been able to separate the artist from the art but only because usually these “repugnant” attributes were within the sphere of the individual themselves.  Perhaps they were alcoholics or heavy drug users.  Perhaps they were arrogant loudmouths.  Maybe they were just plain nasty.

But in the case of Mr. Card, I find his attitudes are such that they do effectively blurring my ability to separate the artist and his art.  Granted, I was never a big fan of Mr. Card’s fiction.  I read Ender’s Game a while back and thought it was a good read but not the great read so many felt it was.  But if I were a fan of his works, I might well have second thoughts about buying his material.

Of course, this is just my opinion.  To those like Mr. Wilson who wrote the above article, its clear they love Orson Scott Card’s work but find the man behind it troublesome, to say the least.  To them, I can only offer my sympathies.  It’s tough to enjoy the works of someone you can’t stomach.

Books/Literature, Computers/Electronics

First Book Written on a Word Processor…?

Interesting article by Matthew Kirschenbaum and presented on Slate regarding what was the first ever book written on a word processor:

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2013/03/len_deighton_s_bomber_the_first_book_ever_written_on_a_word_processor.html

Timing is a funny thing.  Ever since I was very young I’ve wanted to write but as I grew older and began doing just that, as much as I loved to sit behind the typewriter and work on my stories I quickly found this to be a very frustrating thing to do.  I would write something as small as a sentence and then realize it should come later or earlier or wasn’t written quite right…and I would be tempted to rip the paper out of the machine and start over again.  The fact is I’m not one of those people who can write something and be “happy” with it in its first draft form, as opposed to…

In his book on writing, author Stephen King notes that he writes a book, lets it sit and “cool down” for a while before going back to it for a rewrite.  After the rewrite, the book is ready to go.  Erle Stanley Gardner, the creator and author of Perry Mason, was known to knock out a book sometimes in as little time as a day, often dictating his book onto old recording instruments and having his secretary subsequently type it up.

To me writing a first draft of a book involves considerable concentration and thought.  From a plot standpoint, my stories involve many moving parts, all of which must ultimately fit together for the whole to “work”.  Thus I’m usually writing passages then having to go back and add things to the passages or put in more material before or after said passage.  I might even jump back a chapter or two and add a whole new section.  By the time I have that first draft, I’m keenly aware that this is only the first step in what will ultimately be a very long process.

As I mentioned before, I’m usually not approaching satisfaction with my work until at least getting to a fifth draft.  Most of the major plot issues are resolved in the first full rewrite and my focus gradually shifts from plot issues in subsequent drafts to grammatical issues.  Regardless, this part of the process can take the better part of a year before being fully done.  if I were limited to using a typewriter, I’m certain the process would take two or three times as long…and I can’t help but wonder if I would have the patience to make a single book, much less the eight I currently have available via Amazon.

In fact, in the first few years of writing I was using typewriters and was skirting very close to realizing the process of making a book might be simply too difficult for my style of writing.  As it turned out, I was lucky.  In approximately 1983, I purchased an Atari 800, my first personal computer.  Compared to what’s available today, the device was from the stone age.  But it had a printer (a very slow one, granted) and, more importantly, a word processing program.

I was smitten with the word processor and realized immediately this was the device I needed if I was to ever get a chance to write the works I wanted to.  I gave up on typewriters and, in the intervening years and through the various computers, laptops, and tablets I’ve owned have made sure to always have a good word processor available.

Yet I wonder…Had I been born even five years earlier than I was, what would have happened to my younger self if I had been using typewriters exclusively to try to write my novels?  Would I have persevered and nonetheless written my novels or would the frustration of the re-write proven too much?

I wonder.

Books/Literature

Corrosive Knights…a little more details

Just because I found it curious:

The first full draft of the latest (5th) Corrosive Knights book runs 115,531 words, of which 26,779 of these words were bits and pieces shunted outside the main section of the book and may wind up being cut entirely and/or modified and reused in this book or a future work.  In effect, these scenes/pages/paragraphs are similar to “deleted scenes” found in the special features section of movie DVDs.

Thus, the word count of this first draft of the story, minus the potentially to-be-cut material, runs 88,752 words long.  My usual first drafts of novels run around 70-75,000 words, so this is a pretty long first draft.

If history repeats itself, this book will eventually gain another 10-20,000 words before it is completed.  While it is possible to “pare down” some material (and I’ve done that before with at least one of my novels), more often than not the first draft is often more “bare bones” than I’m happy with and requires additional material to smooth over some parts and/or better explain events that happen within the work.  So, if all goes as before, this book should wind up being among my longer works.

As mentioned before, this book represents the conclusion to the first major Corrosive Knights story line.  By that I mean that if you read all the previous books and then read this one, you will finally see exactly how they relate to each other.  As I’ve mentioned many times before, one can read the first three Corrosive Knights books, Mechanic, The Last Flight of the Argus, and Chameleon, in any order at all without getting confused about characters or story.  With Nox, the fourth book in the series, I began to show the relationship between both Mechanic and Chameleon.

With this upcoming book, readers will see the interrelationship between all four previous Corrosive Knights books.  But more to the point: I think its a great story and if you enjoyed the previous books in the series, you should like this one.

I’m very excited and will work really hard to get this out as quickly as possible.

I can’t wait to see what you guys and gals out there think about it.

Books/Literature

Corrosive Knights update

Been a while since I’ve written about, well, my writing, so here goes:

As of yesterday, Valentine’s Day, I finished the first full draft of book #5 of my Corrosive Knights series.  This book follows Mechanic, The Last Flight of the Argus, Chameleon, and Nox, all available through Amazon.com (Click here for the Amazon link)

Corrosive MACN

The latest book in the series is, effectively, the conclusion to the first major Corrosive Knights story line.

That’s not to say, however, that the upcoming book represents the last of the Corrosive Knights series.

Like all books I write, this one involved many many hours of very hard work and, given I’m “only” at the end of first draft stage, there’s still plenty of hard work to come.  To give you an idea of how much more I’ve got to do, I’m usually comfortable enough with my books to release them after doing at least five full revisions/drafts.  In the case of the upcoming book (note that I’m keeping the title to myself at the moment), I suspect it too will take roughly that amount of full revisions.

Still, the biggest hurdle is getting that first full draft done.  It represents a “complete” road map of the story I’m trying to tell.  In turn, the second full draft, which I began working on today, represents the second biggest step forward in getting the novel out there.  My focus on the second draft is to get all major and minor plot points clarified and/or “punched up” for maximum impact.  Subsequent book drafts (ie 3 through 5) tend to focus more on smoothing whatever verbal imperfections or grammatical errors I can find and, therefore, tend to be completed quicker.

I’ll be working very hard for the next few months on this, the latest book in the Corrosive Knights series.  I’m very proud of what I’ve accomplished so far and I think those who have read the first four books in the series will get a huge kick out of this, the fifth one.

I’ll be moving very fast -but not recklessly fast- on these revisions.

Trust me, I can’t wait to get this book out there.

Books/Literature, Computers/Electronics, General

This and that…

A couple of fascinating articles I ran across, one from Slate.com (not to be confused with Salon.com) and the other from Salon.com (not to be confused with Slate.com).

The first article is by Andrew Leonard and can be found on Salon.com.  It concerns the new 3D printing technology and the fact that it might render any gun control legislation moot:

http://www.salon.com/2013/01/25/will_computers_kill_gun_control/

Absolutely loved the article and, moving past the implications of 3D printing regarding gun control, one begins to wonder about what other things the future of 3D printing might impact as well.  Will there come a time, for example, when 3D printing technology will become so advanced (ie able to make items made of metal) that one might be able, for example, to create a new sink for one’s house?  A hose?  A TV set?  If all we need are the raw materials and a program/schematic to print what we want, what effect will this have on industry?  Like MP3s, will there be websites containing downloadable schematics for just about everything we need?  And, returning to the weapon debate, will we be able to “make” our own rocket launcher?

Or perhaps there will come a time when there will be 3D printer “stores” with really big 3D printers within and one could show up with a schematic for your favorite car and, within the day, they might be able to “print” you all the parts to assemble the car on your own at home.

Again, where does this technology leave industry?  And employment?

The second article can be found on Slate.com and is by Mark O’Connell.  It concerns the writing of one Amanda McKittrick Ros, whom many peers (and, apparently, modern readers as well) consider one of the worst writers ever.  A very amusing article:

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2013/01/was_amanda_mckittrick_ros_the_worst_novelist_in_history.html

Reading about Ms. Ros made me think of what is possibly her counterpart in the movie business, the notorious Ed Wood.  I loved this line by Mr. O’Connell which describes the level of “badness” of Ms. Ros’ work:

Ros’ writing is not just bad, in other words; its badness is so potent that it seems to undermine the very idea of literature, to expose the whole endeavor of making art out of language as essentially and irredeemably fraudulent—and, even worse, silly.

Oh my…

Books/Literature

It was only a matter of time…

A “bookless” library is about to open in San Antonio, the first such library of its kind:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/17/bibliotech-bexar-county-bookless-library_n_2496069.html

When the first e-readers and tablets appeared, like many I wasn’t certain they could take over for “real” books and magazines.  In the time since then, that thought has been turned around completely in my mind.

The first obvious sign of the changing of the times was seeing my own decreased interest in a) reading a newspaper (I could get most of the information I desired either from TV or from the internet) and b) losing interest in going to bookstores, something that I would religiously do every few days in the pre-tablet/e-book era.

The rise of the tablets and e-books (and amazon.com) is a classic case of building a better mousetrap.  Before you drove out to a bookstore and maybe found something that interested you to read.  Now, you just go online from the comfort of your own home and in seconds you could buy and download something that interests you and be reading it.  All in the time it would normally take you to just drive to your local bookstore.

In a related note, this semester my kids are being given laptops to use in class and the actual (very heavy) textbooks appear to be on their way out.  I suspect the next generations of students will increasingly use less and less of these heavy textbooks and instead will rely more and more on laptops/tablets to disseminate knowledge.  Again, I view this as a positive.

BUT…

There is something undeniably sad about the fact that we may be slowly moving into an era where physical books may be relegated to memory.  Reality, however, is reality.

My own personal ratio of “physical” novels sold versus “e-books” points out that the sale of e-books vastly outnumbers the sale of actual books.  In part, its price:  A “physical” book costs more to make and, hence, sell.  You’re getting a far better bargain downloading the e-book version.  Plus there is that advantage I pointed to above regarding how quickly you can get your hands on it.

So we move along, slowly discarding old technologies for (hopefully) better new ones.  I still love physical books, but let’s face it…their time may have finally come.

Books/Literature

Happy Holidays!

As a gift for these holidays, Kindle ebook copies of Chameleon will be available for free starting today, December 25, and continuing through the next few days for anyone interested.

Chameleon

Chameleon is the third book in the Corrosive Knights series.  The other available books currently available in this series are Mechanic, The Last Flight of the Argus, and Nox.

Covers to Mechanic, The Last Flight of the Argus, and Nox by E. R. Torre

Chronologically, Chameleon takes place before the events of all the other books yet is nonetheless the third book in this series.  Why?  While planning out the Corrosive Knights series, I realized it would involve an ever expanding cast in stories that take place, quite literally, hundreds and then thousands of years apart.  However, I didn’t want readers to be intimidated by this.  I wanted the first three books of the series, in particular, to be “stand alone” stories that any casual reader could pick up and read without having the burden of going through the other books first.

Thus, one can read Mechanic, The Last Flight of the Argus, and Chameleon in any order at all without being “lost” in the continuity.  My hope was that casual readers who encountered any of the first three books in the series would then be intrigued enough with what was offered to give the other books a try.

Anyway, if you are interested in getting a free taste of this series via Chameleon, please click on this link.  You don’t need an actual Kindle reader to read the book, only a computer or any sort of tablet/laptop device.

For those already familiar with the Corrosive Knights series, a quick update:  I’m hard at work on the fifth book in the series and am roughly three quarters of the way through the first full draft.  This story presented is easily the most ambitious of the Corrosive Knights series thus far and concludes the first major story line.  I have to admit I’ve considered breaking the book into two separate volumes because it is running longer than most of the other books in the series.  However, unless this last part of the book explodes into something far larger than I’m currently estimating, it will remain one book.

I already have a title in mind…

More to come.

HAVE A HAPPY HOLIDAY!