02/23/12 – Typeface

Fox and TMZ are reporting that actor Daniel Von Bargen (Sienfield, Super Troopers) has been hospitalized after an attempted suicide.  There was supposedly a release of the 911 call, but I’m not finding it now.  Having failed to fatally shoot himself, he made the emergency call and explained that he was supposed to go to the hospital to have “at least a few toes” removed due to diabetic complications.

At some point in my early teens, an insulin-dependent family friend was in a similar situation.  Already bound to a wheelchair and regularly going through dialysis, he was told he’d be losing a foot soon.  Taking a shotgun to his own head, he failed to kill himself immediately.  He dragged himself through the house until he caught his roommate’s attention.  His original goal was eventually met, but whether he kept that goal up to the end is debatable, seeing as how he sought help.

I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes about 27 years ago, and I’m admittedly a poor example based on doctors’ interests.  I don’t check my glucose levels on a regular basis; in fact, I don’t think I have a meter after various moves and apathy.  For three short moments a day, it directly affects my life when I’m injecting a dose into my leg.  Otherwise, the relationship between my pancreas and the rest of my reality is rather negligible (again, directly being the key word here).

If anything, it’s been a twenty-seven-year-old science experiment, particularly on a) glucose levels and dreams and b) glucose levels and the speed of cognitive thought.  But I’ve been lucky thus far, as I’ve been blessed with a rather touchy sensitivity to my sugar levels.  A boy in my high school wasn’t so lucky and never made it to graduation.  My biggest fear in this regard is that I’ll become that (decreasingly rare) breed of diabetic that combines type 1 and 2, unable to produce my own insulin and unable to metabolize any I introduce to my system.

I’d like to get into the experiments later.  And the treatment of diabetics as members of “the other” in fiction.  But right now, this whole line of thought is illuminating the entries to some dark paths, and I’d much rather get some sleep.

“I’m from a land called secret Estonia (nobody knows where it’s at)” – Kerli’s “Creepshow”

02/22/12 – Goosebumps

R.L. Stine has been making some news lately with a story told through his Twitter account.  It doesn’t seem too innovative or earth-shaking, but it does take me back to a time when his writings were something to look forward to.

Say what you will about his style or audience, but I would probably say he’s the first author who inspired me to write.  Perhaps it was that, even in my youth, I figured I could emulate his incredibly formulaic products.  It could also be tied in to my mother, who enjoyed soap operas and the daily/weekly cliffhangers they provided.  This could’ve easily translated, in my mind, into a taste for something that tantalizes the reader at the end of every chapter.

Reading Goosebumps and Fear Street led me to other YA horror authors whose names I forget now, which led me to horror, fantasy, existentialism, and weird fiction.  But it’s that “maturing” I remember best: that change in the reaction to his fiction from “What’s going to happen next?” to “Well, damn, I could write better than this.”  I read Goosebumps much longer than I probably should have with the naive notion that at some point the formula had to change.

But why change at all?  The target audience was constantly refreshing itself, with the original market aging out while a new breed were being conceived.  Stine’s marketing strategies probably aren’t all that different from those of the bridal magazines.  Innovation and creativity aren’t expected because there’s no social contract keeping the reader attached to the author.  It’s almost brilliant in its simplicity.

So bravo to Mr. Stine.  I hope he never changes.  And I sincerely hope that I’m not the last of the children inspired by his writings to delve deeper into the genre and/or pick up a writing instrument.  Thank you, Jovial Bob.  May you never break the formula.

I’ve been playing with covers and front copy this week.  The first image, counting from the left, is what’s being used currently.  The consensus on Facebook seems to be that the third (kinda sepiia-toned aerial view of Levittown, sorta classy) is the best choice.  Although I would agree, I think the fourth is really eye-catching.  I don’t really see what says “Read me!” about the third, so I’m torn.

02/17/12 – State of the Union

Hmm.  Thought I posted on here three days ago.  Whoops.

Print Book

The paperback edition of Coincidence has been approved and is available at http://amzn.com/1470032511.  The proof amused me as it’s similar in size and feel to my philosophy books from Penguin.  Maybe I’ll make it some kind of prize for something in the future.  I’m rather underwhelmed with the Createspace book process.  I used their services before to produce a CD and found the cover to be pretty customizable.  The customization doesn’t transfer to their book covers, however.

Smashwords

Smashwords finally approved the ebook after two weeks.  Their servers had some difficulties this week, so I’ll give them that.  Coincidence should be available in their affiliates’ stores soon.  There’s something somewhat telling, though, about the fact that the site went down for nearly twenty-four hours and no one seemed to say anything about it.  I was searching for comments on the social networks, but the only mention I found of a system failure was one back in July.  Podiobooks.com got DOS’d within the past couple months and everyone was alarmed.  Don’t know what to make of these facts.  Just sayin’.

Podiobook

I finished editing episode six of twenty-nine last night.  That one was a doozie as it was the end of section one (2000).  One of my beta readers told me the story really gets into its groove in the next section (2003), so maybe that’ll translate to the audio.  I’m still finding a learning curve in the differences between the written and spoken words.  With writing, we’re told to have variations in sentence length, clauses, etc.  Try speaking those longer sentences, though, and see where it gets you.  If I had planned to do a podiobook from the beginning, I think there would’ve been more instances of alliteration, onomatopoeia, and other forms of sixth grade English tactics.

What’s Next?

I haven’t written anything since “The End” in Coincidence.  I’ve taken an extraordinarily long time to cool down from that particular narrative.  But I’m starting to see flickers of short stories, mostly answers to questions like “What happened to Ziggy after he left the hospital?”  or “What kind of villainy did Ty try before she got her hands on Chris?”  Maybe even some more abstract, indirect stories that kinda sorta in a Coincidence-esque way eventually affect someone.  Too early to tell, I guess.  The only thing I know for certain is that these would be placed on the Kindle store for free with mention of Coincidence in the back.

“This pretty speckled length of twin that’s wrapped around your neck is mine” – Ruby’s “Salt Water Fish”

02/10/12 – Mystic Pizza

My favorite character in Coincidence has got to be Wayne Elliot, the terminal cancer patient with a very large trick up his sleeve. He’s one of the few written with his mysticism on display. Andreas McCombie is his equal and opposite in many regards, but Andreas doesn’t know the application of his knowledge, just the theory.

Wayne was the one voice that could’ve convinced me to write in the third person omniscient perspective, if only to hear his thoughts. As he mentions to Margie, he sees there’s a great battle going on between free spirits and those who would keep the energy of the world for themselves. I think Chris has an eye for this too, which might explain how they gravitate toward each other.

What eventually stopped me from the omniscience was fear (or practicality, depending on your perspective). I didn’t think I could go any deeper without producing a heavy-handed neo-mystic story, something akin to Daniel Quinn. That kind of story isn’t really appropriate unless there’s an agenda—a philosophy you want your readers to follow or be inspired by.

While Andreas can rant on about the Bardos states and the rituals of Autumn’s Eve, it’s Wayne that goes “Wanna see something cool? Here, hold my beer.” To put it in an incredibly generic simile, he’s the Criss Angel of neopaganism.  But in my personal backstory for the characters, I know how they view their spiritualities.  Many are very close to Wayne and Andreas, just not publicly so. 

Perhaps it’s due to the medium’s limitations, but I just don’t see spiritualities in written fiction that often unless it’s something targeting the Christian/neo-pagan markets.  I mention the limitations because a) many times, those moments of zen, grace, or enlightenment are difficult to capture into words and b) therefore it’s easier to show the dawning on someone’s face than it is to write “…and then I was filled with an overwhelming connection between all things, as if the threads that tie us weren’t invisible, but overlooked until that very moment.”

Add to this the fact that many people are ignorant to their own spells and rituals, and you get a challenge for those interested in writing with a touch (or more) of the ethereal.  Has anyone done it?  Have you ever read a piece of fiction (Christian, Wiccan, atheist, or Pastafarian) where the spirituality fit instead of being a stereotype or tacked on (like sexuality normally is in pop fic)?

“All of the ink that was bled from your hands has painted a picture that she understands” – Poe’s “Amazed”