Category Archives: Books

5 Days Until Release & The Hunt

Only 5 more days until Vulcan’s Forge is published and a gentle reminder that pre-orders count more than post publication orders for ranking and sales numbers.

Movie Review: The Hunt

Last night a friend and I split the cost to rent The Hunt a film more cursed with it release than my own novel’s trouble path to publication. Originally scheduled for release last year The Hunt is a graphic violent satire of the current political climate forged with the classic story The Deadliest Game. The overt and over-the-top political bent of the characters created a controversy last year and the title was pulled from distribution. Now the release has been thrown into chaos by the COVID-19 pandemic and the studio moved it to on-line rentals to recoup at least some of the production cost.

Betty Gilpin plays Crystal, one of nearly a dozen conservative characters who are kidnapped and awaken in a forest lethally hunted by cultural elites for sport. With a modest budget of 14 million dollars and released by horror studio Blumhouse The Hunt is over all an unsatisfying picture. None of the characters are fully developed and the yet are also not broad enough for over the top satire. The film takes too long to connect with its main character and I found that distancing and prevented me from becoming emotionally engaged in her struggle. Perhaps the greatest failing of The Hunt is as satire. Satire requires a point, an argument, it needs to stand for something and to say something. While it is far from necessary for the film to ‘pick a side’ in the liberal/conservative cultural war it satirizes it is necessary that the film say something, make some sort of point. The classic film Doctor Strangelove is satire with broad characters and does not pick a side in the US vs USSR cold War but does make a point about the madness of mutually assured destruction and living on a knife’s edge. The Hunt makes no statement, exhibits no point of view, but simple moves caricature of characters through cartoony chaos. While my friend enjoyed the movie, I find it is not one I can recommend.

6 Days Until Release

It is now 6 days, less than a week, until Flametree Press publishes my first novel, Vulcan’s Forge.

First novel is such a strange term. Certainly, from the point of view of reviews and the public this is number one but from the point of view of the author it is far from my first, merely the first to survive until publication.

The very first novel I ever write was way way back in 1979 during my senior year of high school. Freeeholder was a post-apocalyptic adventure novel centered on a culture of liberal pacifist survivalists.

After my tour in the U.S. Navy there was a significant period of time when I did no writing whatsoever and even following that years long dry period what I attempted to write were screenplays.

It really wasn’t until the late 90s that I returned to prose writing and then it was short stories as I was quite fearful of the commitment required for a novel. During the 2000s I started writing novels again when a particular idea seized my and would not let go until had committed it to prose.

Several novels were then written over the years, some are destined to be re-written and some are going to be forever abandoned but all were learning experiences that extended my abilities as a writer.

Vulcan’s Forge started prior to 2015 when I first wrote it as a novella but that was far too brief for the world building required for this SF noir. The novel version was written and completed in 2017. At the time I had an agent and I turned the manuscript in to him and it sat on his desk unread for year until our association was dissolved.

2019 I submitted it to Flametree Press and they bought the book. My time with them has been fantastic. I couldn’t ask for better partners in traditional publishing.

The COVID-19 pandemic is terrible. I live in California and we are today 20 March 2020, under a stay at home order, though I work in an essential area of health care and will still be going to my day job. My signing and launch event were canceled, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of one little debut author, but books are still being delivered and you can still order it from your local bookstores, so all is not bleak.

‘First’ novels are rarely the first ones written but just as with ‘overnight’ successes perception doesn’t match reality.

BOOK SIGNING CANCELED

Due to the continuing Corona Crisis, not even a pandemic will stop my alliterations, the signing event for my first novel is now canceled.

With gatherings of 10 or more people highly discouraged the store, Mysterious Galaxy, has closed to foot and in-person traffic until at least April 1st. There are discussions of possibly rescheduling the event for later in the year but I am sure slots will be limited and I am not the only author impacted so a reschedule would be nice but I am not counting on it.

If you were planning to attend the event, or if independent bookstores are important to you, I suggest that you buy the book from Mysterious Galaxy anyway. They are taking orders and fulfilling them by mail. Bezos and Amazon will weather this storm with literally billions in cash but local businesses will not be so lucky.

Mysterious Galaxy is a critical factor in the existence of my novel Vulcan’s Forge. For ten years I have met there with my writing group and that has certainly leveled me up as a writer and their staff are always helpful, friendly, supportive, and knowledgeable. From Mysterious Galaxy and stores like them you get those personal recommendation that can lead you to a new favorite author, not something simply pushed by an algorithm.

Vulcan’s Forge is my first novel and I certainly hope it is not my last. Having your debut event canceled is tough but COVID-19 is tougher and we can weather this if we do the right things. So, I will be sad to not have that signing but I hope that instead people stay safe, healthy, and order the book online even if they can’t have my illegible scribbling defacing it.

This Feels Wrong

This will be a quick post.

So, I am revising my military SF about an American serving in the European Union’s Star Forces set in a future in which America took a wrong turn in the early 21^st century and became a second-rate power. Honest, I was cooking this idea back in the early 90s.

This is the manuscript that originally clocked in at 115 thousand words and on advice from an agency was trimmed to around 98 thousand.

As I review the original longer work, a version I had preferred, I find that I am really enjoying this book. It has been a few years since I have read it carefully, line by line, word by word, as once I send a project off to editors for consideration, I protect my sanity by moving on to the next project. So, this return to the origi9nal manuscript is a, pardon the pun, novel experience.

It feels wrong just how much I am enjoying this read. But this speaks to the truism I hold to in writing, write the book you want to read. There is your vision, there is voice, there is what makes it yours.

Movies Better Than Their Books

It’s a sentiment accepted by many a bibliophile that the novel is always better than the film version, but I content such a broad and all-encompassing statement cannot be universally true. Here are a few examples of where I think the films version of the stories exceeded what the novel presented.

Jaws

The iconic terrifying film from Steven Spielberg sent a generation scrambling for the shore fearful of the water is based upon a novel by Peter Benchley. For the screenplay two major sub-plots were omitted, the affair between Chief Brody’s wife and the young expert Hooper and Amity’s Mayor’s debt to local organized crime that made the mayor fearful of closing the beaches and being unable to repay what he owed. Both sub-plots are melodramatic and easily the most forgettable aspects of the novel. While Hooper’s and Ellen’s affair makes both of these characters less sympathetic than the cinematic characters.

The Hunt for Red October

Tom Clancy’s first novel of a Soviet super-sub’s defection to the west produced a terrific film directed by John McTernan and gave us the best on-screen Jack Ryan with Alec Baldwin. The novel suffered from American Uber Alles with everything done by the U.S. Military being exemplary over the far less capable Soviet forces. Reducing this produced a tighter and more tense conflict.

The Prestige

Not as well-know or as beloved as many other films by Christopher Nolan The Prestige took the great liberties with its source material a prize-winning fantasy novel of the same name by Christopher Priest. The novel spans time between the modern day, 1995 for the publication date, and the later 1800 with the feud between the rival stage magicians, introducing concepts as far afield as ghost into its narrative. Nolan’s script simplified the scope, restricting to its time setting, but retaining the multiple points of view and non-linear narrative but most importantly his gave a better motivation for why the feus turned murderous. In the novel it spirals out from one character performing seances, a common practice for stage magician’s, and being exposed for his fraud by his rival, also a common activity for stage magicians of the period. Having an on-stage death for which one is responsible made for a more compelling and acceptable motivation for the feud’s terrible escalation.

It Begins Again

Yesterday I moved beyond notes, character design, and outlines with actual prose written on my next novel. I will admit that I did not get as much written on day one of the novel as I had hoped but words are on the page and the project has at least a little momentum.

Sunday night for whatever reason turned out to be a poor sleep night. I awoke after about 3 and a half hours of sleep with a parched throat and after cool water to deal with that issue I spent the rest of the evening in a sleep/wake cycle that precluded any real rest. While I did get writing done on my lunch break at the day job, in the evening I was simply too exhausted for anything more strenuous than watching the final episode of season two of The Crown. There wasn’t enough Princess Anne in the season, she’s clearly become my new favorite character.

I would love to get my novel’s first draft completed by the end of May. That would mean about 20,000 words per month or about 5,000 words per week. That’s is a doable goal despite this halting start from yesterday.

I am also working out the design for a Newsletter that will come out monthly. In the final week of each month I plan to release an email newsletter with defined content to help promote myself as an author. I am also thinking about releasing, also on a monthly schedule, previously published short stories of mine in an audio format.

The Good News Post

So, there are several bits of new news to share this chilly December morning.

First off: Because I have a minor surgery scheduled this week and then a week off from my day job for recovery that mean I will not be working any more overtime. The money is nice, and I love chipping in and helping out my team at Kaiser Permanente but it’s really nice to get back to a normal schedule that allows for writing.

Second, pivoting of the subject of writing, our favorite local bookstore Mysterious Galaxy is saved! They have new owners and a new location so the store will not have to shutter depriving San Diego book readers, un-employing its staff, or leaving its various book, gaming, and writing groups homeless. Truly this had made this season festive.

And HBO’s Watchmen reached the season one finale and for once I am not disappointed by a project associate with showrunner Damon Lindelof. Quite the contrary, this series was fantastic. Every element plays perfectly in tune with the themes that grounded this version of the story and all the major points and developments were well established. The characters both as written and as performed simply captivated and for those that are the older versions of ones from the sources material managed to be true to their natures while exploring logical and consistent change from the thirty years that had passed. While Angela Abar (Regina Hill) may have been the protagonist of the story Laurie Blake (Jean Smart) took home favorite character prize from this viewer. Where the original graphic novel Watchmen centered thematically on the Cold War and the ever-present threat of nuclear annihilation with those ideas and terrors informing not just the plot but the look and feel of the story this Watchmen explored the lingering horror, hate, and trauma of racial injustice and bigotry. Starting off with the slaughter and destruction of ‘Black Wall Street’ in Tulsa Oklahoma in 1921 and ending with crisis from Tulsa that threatens the world, Watchmen 2019 explores justice and the thorny issues confusing that concept with its petty cousin vengeance. Best off the season did not end with a plot cliffhanger. While the final shots left a terribly large question unanswered it did not fail to resolve the essential conflict or theme of the series. If there is never a season two the show is still full resolved and satisfying. Thank you, Mr. Lindelof, I do so hate cliffhangers.

I Have A Release Date

My debut novel, Vulcan’s Forge now has it official release date from Flame Tree Press, March 26th 2020. (That year, 2020 still feels to me like some distant far away future.) The novel will be available in Hardback, Paperback, and e-Book editions. There will also be an audio book but I am not sure of its release date.

Because there is a release date that means the novel is now available for pre-order. I have already confirmed that at both major on-line retailers, that is to say Amazon, and at my local specialty bookstore Mysterious Galaxy, so if you are interested you can buy the book now for it’s March release. (I am informed that pre-orders count more for success than off the shelf purchases.)

More Thoughts on Noir

Recently I have been re-reading my SF/Noir novel Vulcan’s Forge in anticipation of editor’s notes as we proceed towards our early 2020 publication date and, along with watching classic noirson streaming while reading some of the classic works in their original forms, I have been thinking about the nature of the genre and what really makes up this beloved form.

In previous posts I have discussed how one of the principal driving factor of noiris to me is how characters are consumed by their appetites and I still hold that this is an essential elements in noir fiction, be it film or literature, but I am now thinking there is an additional element, beyond the stylized ones, that feels central to the genre and that is the conflict between the character and their culture.

In noir fiction characters are often immoral and that immorality is judged against the larger culture that character comes from. Murder, theft, and unsanctioned sexual activity are the hallmarks of noir movies and from the classic period running through the 1940s and 1950s acting on these desires places a person firmly beyond the boundaries of ‘polite society.’ Even when the heroes of noir fiction aren’t murderous insurance salesmen but rather the hard-bitten border-line alcoholic private detective they still transgress far beyond anything accept my society at large. Sam Spade before being entangled in a hunt for the ‘black bird’ and temptation of great wealth it represents is betraying both his partner and societies morals by his affair with Archer’s wife. Time and time again the main characters in noir reject society’s conformity, sometimes they do so with an internal code such as Spade or Jeff Bailey in Out of the Past or in other instances they simply violate society’s rules out of greed and lust such as Walter Neff in Double Indemnity.

All of this prompts the idea, that I am sure is far from original with myself, that a close reading of noir, either in a film or prose piece, can also been seen as a commentary on the society surrounding those characters. This is doubly so when the noiris combine with another genre such as fantasy or science fiction where the society is likely to be as fictional as the protagonists leveling an additional responsibility on the creator to be detailed and thoughtful about their narrative and what it says about human nature both at the individual and societal levels.

Nailing the Ending

For me endings are where the meaning and themes of the story come together into a synergistic whole. The point if the story, be it a film or prose, usually lies in how that tale concludes and this places an especially important weight on getting your endings correct.

Here I am not talking about how the plot resolves, but rather the character beat that wraps up the transformation, for good or for ill, that was the protagonist’s journey.

In 1987’s Robocop the film originally ended with one final news break segment that let the audience know that Murphy’s partner, Lewis, not only survived the film but had not been transform into a cyborg as Murphy had but once the filmmakers watched the final confrontation and it’s final line ‘Murphy’ they knew that beat ended the movie, there was no story after he reclaimed his humanity.

2008’s Iron Man went through a similar edit. The script ended with Tony Stark coming home and having his meeting with Nick Fury and the hint of further adventures to come with ‘the Avengers’ imitative. However just as with Robocop the director found that his story had ended with the line ‘I am Iron Man.’ Unlike Robocop Iron Mancarried the weight of teasing the wider Marvel Cinematic Universe and the Nick Fury scene could not be discarded and the Marvel Post Credit Sequence tradition was born. Marvel did not invent this, before Iron Mancame along these were called buttons and the occasional film make tossed them in a treat for audiences that sat through the entire end credit sequence. (Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearlhad on with the monkey Jack grabbing a curse coin.)

I know that when I was editing my novel that comes out next year I discovered that I had done a similar thing. From the start I had a particular line that I wanted to end the book on and yet as I edited I discovered my story ended half a page ahead of my beautiful sentence. I killed my darling and the book ends where it needs to, or at least how it looks to me.

It is reported that Avengers: Endgame has no post credit sequence because the movie acts as the thematic end for the current cycle of the MCU films. I will see Endgame this Sunday morning, the traditional times that my sweetie-wife and I go together to the movies, and I hope hoping that not only do they give me a satisfying ending to the Infinity War saga but also to the unique 22 film experiment that is the birth of the MCU.

Robert Mitchell Evans

Literary Saboteur