But This Time There Were Robots – A Potential Anthology

An idea has insinuated itself into my mind. I can do nothing but post about it and see if anyone else is as excited about it as I am.

I was posting on social media about how last night I had written 2000 words and killed off Gaius Julius Caesar in my novel about an ironpunk Roman republic. In doing so one of my followers responded by congratulating me, but asked if Caesar hadn’t been killed a long time ago.

I allowed that he had been and then uttered the phrase that has grasped my mind in two metallic pincer-like hands for the last 6 hours.

Caesar had been killed before, I said. But this time there were robots!

 

A scene from Karel Čapek’s 1920 play R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots), the first usage of the word ‘robot’

 

Now, let me be clear. I know next to nothing about putting together a short story anthology. I know next to nothing about self-publishing. Will I let that stop me? Certainly not. I can learn.

I envision an anthology of stories by multiple authors, set in different historical time periods, featuring robots big and small. Some will be friendly robots and some will be mean. Some will be very smart and others will be glorified wind-up toys. Some will have scientific reasons for their existence, and some will exist just because it’s fun.

All will be robots, and all will be anachronistic.

When I figure out how I’m going to proceed I will post again. There could be a call for submissions or a Kickstarter campaign, I’m honestly not sure. But this is going to happen.

If you’re interested in participating in what is now just an idea, let me know.

Stay tuned.

The Yearling

Shadi ran.

She had stayed as long as she could. But she didn’t want to get sick, and if she stayed she knew that it would happen. So had her father. Which is why he sent Shadi away.

“Go to the town,” he told her between racking coughs that brought up blood onto his thin blanket. “Go…warn them.”

She placed a wet cloth on his forehead and the old chief shut his eyes, soaking in the minor relief it gave him.

“What if it came from them?” she had asked. He shook his head. She could see that it took almost all his remaining strength just to move his face back and forth, but he didn’t want to be misunderstood.

“Ours boys…they brought it back. I don’t know where from. But not from the town.” Shadi’s father clutched her arm then, and it hurt. She was amazed at the strength that still pulsed through the old man. She thought, somehow, his strength was growing. That didn’t make sense, though. Did it?

“Warn them,” he choked out. “Warn everyone.”

The chief fell into another attack of coughs and then dropped into an uneasy sleep. Shadi worried if he’d ever wake again.

She packed a small satchel of food that she hoped wouldn’t make her sick, filled a skin with water that might or might not be clean and slipped her father’s rifle over her shoulder by its worn leather strap.

Shadi would have taken a horse – she was one of the tribe’s best riders – but they were all gone. When the two boys had stumbled into village early three mornings ago, bleeding and moaning like a strong wind, they had attacked anything that moved. And that meant they went for the horses. The two of them had actually managed to take one of the large animals down.

A beautiful tan yearling that Shadi had been planning to train that spring was kicking weakly in the dust and nearly dead by the time anyone knew what was happening. The boys had their faces buried in the horse’s flesh, ripping and tearing and biting at the red meat while dark blood dripped down their faces. They looked like demons in the early morning light.

The other horses had broken through the rudimentary fence that was all they ever needed to keep them in and run off. Shadi didn’t blame them. She would have done the same thing.

She was doing the same thing now. Whatever sickness those boys had was spreading. They had attacked anyone who got close enough before they could be restrained. They bit and scratched. Everyone who had helped restrain them got sick first. Then those who were trying to treat the boys’ wounds. Then those who were trying to treat the wounds of those injured by the boys.

The chief’s daughter felt fine. She didn’t know if she would get sick once she was out on the road, but Shadi knew that if she stayed it was almost a sure thing.

She gave her home one last, long look and then took off towards Coppermill.

Shadi ran.

And she was followed.

 

Read Part 1 of the story HERE.

Read Part 2 of the story HERE.

Read Part 3 of the story HERE.

The Slow and the Dead and the Fickle Author

I’m allowing myself to be fickle, and renaming my ongoing western/zombie story series. It’s NEW name is:

THE SLOW AND THE DEAD

Since I’m in the middle of writing, recording and producing season 2 of my podcast, and writing the first draft of my spy novel, I figure why not get off my duff and continue this story? And I will…soon! In 2013! I totally promise!

Read Part 1 of the story HERE.

Read Part 2 of the story HERE.

Read Part 3 of the story HERE.

The Next Big Thing: The Second Man

Will your work in progress become the NEXT BIG THING?

Jared Axelrod, the genius content creator behind THE BATTLE OF BLOOD AND INK, has tagged me in this deliciously self-promotional blog post series. You can read his post here.

Now, I’m a writer, but I have yet to have anything published. (Unless you count the Parsec Award-winning podcast Supervillain Corner.) So, my WIP may take a while before it truly become the next big thing. But it will! Read on and let me know if you agree.

What is your working title of your book?

The Second Man

Where did the idea come from for the book?

This novel’s genesis was formed from the minds of two creators: myself and the incredibly talented J.R. Blackwell.

Being an overweight individual, I had been playing around the idea of a fat espionage agent. I feel that it is in part a natural step in evolution from le Carre’s George Smiley. Smiley is a simple, unassuming man who is one of the greatest spymasters in fiction. Casting an overweight person in the role of spy just makes sense. Who would suspect the chubby guy to be a trained operative?

When I told this idea to J.R., she mentioned that she had been toying with the idea of a ‘second man’…a spy who acts as the unseen back-up to the James Bond-ish ‘first man’. J.R. realized, and she’s right, that in many ways James Bond is not a good spy. A good action hero, definitely. But very little of what Bond does is subtle. So she came up with the concept of an actual expert spy who has the job to make sure Bond’s missions succeed while remaining hidden in the background.

With J.R.’s blessing I have combined the two concepts and am running with it.

What genre does your book fall under?

I believe the technical term is spy-fi. Spy fiction with just a touch of science fiction to flavor it up.

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

This is a very difficult question for me. Mostly because nearly every character has been cast in my mind from my family and friends. My wife is Dr. Charbonneau, the equivalent of ‘Q’ from the Bond films. My friend, the incredible stage actor Jerry is the First Man. J.R. Blackwell and Jared Axelrod both have prominent roles as well.

But if I had to choose from existing screen actors, only two actors for two roles jump immediately to mind.

James Corden would be brilliant as the Second Man.

And Stanley Tucci would be perfect as my Stephen Hawking-esque villain, Dr. Wallenheim.

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

The nation’s greatest super spy is hot on the trail of a cabal kidnapping scientists while his unknown backup, the even better Second Man, makes sure the job is done and done properly.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

I don’t know. Ideally I want to be represented by an agency. But if not, I look forward to investigating the option of self-publishing.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

I’m well into the first draft, and provided season 2 of Supervillain Corner doesn’t get in the way, I predict I’ll be done by March.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

Probably something like le Carre or Fleming but a bit more American and a fair amount less cerebral. So the George Smiley and James Bond books would be what I’m striving to be like.

Who or what inspired you to write this book?

JR Blackwell and this incredible portrait she took of me.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

The style I’m writing this story in is highly inspired by the works of Robert B. Parker and Jim Butcher. While this is going to be a super-spy story, I’ve been giving it the flavor of a noir-ish detective tale. Regardless, if you like getting inside the mind of the heroes whether they’re being serious or silly, I think you’ll dig The Second Man.

Now, my victim…er, I mean, the content creator I’m tagging…is author and podcaster Scott Roche. Keep a look out for his post some time next week.

Or next month. Scott doesn’t follow my schedule, but he might just have the next big thing!

The Complete NaNoWriMo Project

November is safely behind us.

I’ve spent the last near-fortnight recovering from the grueling but ultimately fulfilling experience that was National Novel Writing Month.

That’s right, readers. I won. I completed 50,000 words in less than 30 days!

And I’m totally unhappy with my story. I feel like it needs a ton of work (it does) and I shudder at the thought of putting that work into it. Still…part of being a writer, or so they tell me, is putting in that extra work. So I will.

Once I finish the first draft of my next writing project and get season 2 of the Supervillain Corner podcast started.

I have creative ADHD.

If you want to follow the entire journey that brought me to not liking what I wrote, but at least having a bunch of words and knowing I can write on a schedule, check out the complete NaNoWriMo project as done by the Roundtable Podcast below.

The NaNoWriMo Project: Part 1

The NaNoWriMo Project: Halfway There

The NaNoWriMo Project: The Wrap Up

 

The NaNoWriMo Project

NaNoWriMo is upon us!

For those of you who don’t know, or who aren’t writers, you should know that NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. That month happens to be November, and I plan on being a part of it.

Over 30 days I will do my best to write 50,000 words of a brand new story idea. If I succeed (which, sadly, is not a given) I will have the first draft of a novel to play around with.

It is a great event to encourage people who don’t normally write to start writing. It’s also a lot of fun for those who do in fact write, but perhaps not as often as they can or should.

In preparation, I was a guest on The Roundtable Podcast recently with 3 other awesome writers. Click the link below and go to the episode where I discuss my story idea!

The NaNoWriMo Project (1 of 4)

 

Easily Amused Reviews: John Mierau’s ‘Subversion (Enemy Lines): Book 1′

I’m going to call any review on this site – be it a review of literature, television, film, graphic novels or anything in between – an ‘Easily Amused Review’. This is not meant to disparage the subject of my thoughts. Merely, it is an acknowledgment that I quite enjoy many things that, I have been told, are not enjoyed by a great many others. These include works of art like the 4th Indiana Jones movie, the prequel of The Thing, and the Puzo’s novel of The Godfather.

That being said, what I am reviewing now is super awesome! And if you don’t agree…well, this is the internet. So if someone out there doesn’t disagree, I will die of shock.

With that in mind, I want to talk about Subversion (Enemy Lines): Book 1 by John Mierau.

The Book:

There are aliens visiting Earth, and everyone wants a piece of them! While a black-ops government organization races against an evil corporation for advanced technology, the alien race themselves (little greys called ‘Observers’ by their loyal human followers and ‘Flyers’ by Division 10) seem content to work with some very talented humans to advance the Earth in subtler ways. Until, that is, some Observers arrive that seem to think ‘subtle’ and ‘beneficial’ are bad words…

What I Liked:

John Mierau is an expert on character development and world building. A few well-placed words were enough to tell me all I needed to know about the personalities of his main cast.

His handling of action is masterful, and he does an excellent job of creating and holding tension. He creates a world that is not black and white (shall we call it ‘grey’?), which leaves the reader unsure in places who they should root for and who will end up winning. Which just adds to the fun, in my humble opinion!

What I Disliked:

If there’s any way in which Enemy Lines fails for me, it is the sense of incompleteness I felt when I reached the end. It feels like it is the first third of an epic, George R. R. Martin-sized novel. It feels like the pilot episode of an awesome television show that I will tune in each week to watch.

That, almost certainly, is by design. Enemy Lines is, after all, Part 1 of a larger work. So I can’t really fault John Mierau for this one. The Book is called Part 1, and Part 1 is what you get.

Can I really blame him for my wanting to have Part 2 right now?!

Rating:

I don’t know if I’ll have an official ‘rating system’ for Easily Amused Reviews, but on Goodreads I gave Subversion (Enemy Lines): Part 1 3 stars out of 5.

A wonderful start that suffers only because it fails to complete the story. I look forward to reading the rest of the series, and am pretty confident the story as a whole will earn a higher rating.

Pick it up!

And if you want to learn more about John Mierau and his work, you can find him at ServingWorlds.com.