So today is "Earth Day." Personally, I find it pretty sad that in the 365 days of the year we have, we can only find one in which to do the right thing for this wonderful place we call home.
Further to my previous posting about my newest relative - Teag, I am pleased to report that he is now home.
The local Orlando news ran a story on Teag which you can view here and basically shamed the insurance company into coughing up the money to pay for the air ambulance. Teag flew home on Saturday.
Many thanks for those of you who sent good wishes and offered donations.
I have always wished I could draw or play music. Unfortunately, despite being a creative type myself, I possess absolutely no ability in either of these fields. I am therefore always impressed by people with artistic or music ability.
Those of you who have read the other postings on this blog will know that I thoroughly enjoyed the Michael Bay movie "Transformers" so I was completely blown away when I happened across this clip on You Tube completely by accident. If you have five minutes to kill, prepare to be awestruck by this guys phenomenal talent.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Nico di Mattia - Speedpainter.
Having seen Paul Verhoeven’s cinematic working over of Heinlein’s "Starship Troopers," I sat down with what is arguably one of SF’s classic reads thinking I knew what to expect. I was to be proved quite wrong. "Working over" is not a misnomer for Verhoeven’s movie, since it does not hold very true to the book and as a result, reading the book gave me a whole new "Starship Troopers" experience.
Troopers is told through the eyes of Juan "Johnnie" Rico, a young man who enlists in the army more to gain citizen status and voting rights than exercise any desire to serve Earth as a soldier. For the most part, the book describes Rico’s progression through basic training and the trials and exercises he and the other cadets are forced to endure as they progress towards becoming full blown soldiers. Their instructors are veterans of the bug war, limited now to training the cadets due to horrific wounds and disabilities sustained whilst in the front line of combat. As the vets put the recruits through their paces, one thing becomes clear, the soldier of tomorrow will not be able to rely on weapons and brute strength - with a rocket powered suit which augments every movement and a lethal arsenal of weapons to hand, these troopers need to be a cut above the rest if they ever hope to make it. The attrition rate is high, but so is the desire to become a citizen and there are plenty more recruits in line.
Rico will be one of the few to graduate from his round of intake and soon finds himself assigned to the mobile infantry (MI), the foot soldiers, or grunts if you like, of the Earth’s army. Whilst going through basic training, he has been somewhat sheltered from the world(s) outside and is told little of the bug war which is escalating in scale. That is quickly rectified though, and within weeks of earning his "chevrons" Rico will find himself fighting on a bug occupied planet and facing the enemy first hand.
First published in 1959, Heinlein’s "Troopers" has been controversial from the outset. The novel has been accused of being pro-war, anti-war, even pro-fascist but I didn’t get that sentiment from it at all. If anything, Heinlein’s rhetoric suggested an underlying socialist tone. Rico is a likeable character and the story told from his point of view instills empathy in the reader. One can’t help but feel that after his initial decision to enlist he is then relatively powerless to stop himself being swept along on a path that takes him from reluctant recruit to career soldier. But the far more interesting characters for me were Mr. Dubois and Major Reid, Rico’s high school and army teachers of history and moral philosophy. Both seemed to be Heinlein’s moral sounding board when it came to issues of society as a whole.
It is clear to see where the pro-fascist accusations come from. In "Troopers" Terran society is governed by war veterans which, on face value, sounds much like a pro-war dictatorship, but the Dubois and Reid characters lecture the students as to why this is a good thing. The individuals of the government have earned the right to govern through their selfless actions, indeed, only those who care enough about society as a whole to the extent that they are prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice to defend it, should have any say (whether it be through the vote or government), in its future. On reading, I couldn’t help but feel like these two character’s gave voice to Heinlein’s thoughts and frustrations about society. Frustrations that could easily be transposed to today.
It came as no surprise to me that Heinlein was a navy veteran. The descriptions of basic training are gritty and realistic, even given their futuristic slant, and the book itself, written in the first person, reads more like a diary than a novel. The science is well done, the description of armored, powered suits was fascinating and the combat scenes, though few and far between, give a healthy dose of action to keep the story rolling along
With a title like "Starship Troopers," it’s easy to think that this is a pulpy action novel about war, but for me, the war aspect of "Troopers" was more of a backdrop to a story about individuals and their responsibility to society. When I first started reading it, I wasn’t too enamoured with the story because I was expecting something quite different, but in hindsight, it is easy to see why "Troopers" is a classic. Recommended.
It is a desperate time in Earth's future.Global warming is taking its toll.The polar ice caps are melting, raising sea levels and contaminating fresh water supplies.Man has two choices.Rely on D-salt, itself a much sought after commodity, to remove impurities from tainted water, or look to the heavens for a new home.
Doyle Gage is the poster boy for the promised Gaea future.A long serving United Earth Coalition (UEC) soldier, Doyle has been hand picked to be commander of the Gaea-02 spaceship.Its mission, to forge a new colony on a distant planet called M38But Doyle unexpectedly finds himself alone to raise his young son and resigns his post, electing only to accompany the ship on its six month, slingshot test flight as a civilian consultant.
On returning to Earth, the crew of Gaea-02 are horrified to discover that the Asian Pacific Alliance (APA) has started all out war with the UEC.It soon becomes clear, the APA are after one thing, the Gaea ship and all its technology, so they can mount their own bid for M38.
Stranded in space, and considered fugitive by the APA, the crew of the Gaea-02 will be forced to make difficult decisions and Doyle must decide if he should return to Earth and learn the fate of his son or head for the stars and fulfill the Gaea dream.
Gaea: Beyond the Son, is the brilliant first offering from P.D. Gilson.Crammed full of action and with a plot played out by believable, likeable characters, it's hard to put this book down.
If you're looking for hard, techhy sci-fi, then this isn't for you.But if you like your SF a little on the pulpy/adventure side with a splash of military thrown in for good measure, I heartily recommend it.
The initial premise is good, the future world Gilson writes about not too much of a leap of faith given current warnings about global warming and climate change.The characters are engaging and their individual stories are slowly revealed to the reader through a series of flashbacks and hibernation dreams.Yes, it's been done before but it's executed well, bringing to the surface conflicts and motivations that draw you into the story as the book progresses.
The crew of the Gaea-02 get thrown from one situation to the next, and the action scenes are exciting and written well, yet none of the obstacles or hardships encountered seemed contrived to pad the story out, they just added to the snowballing pace of the plot.
If I had one minor criticism of Gaea: Beyond the Son, it would be the use of unexplained acronyms.Lovers of SF will have no problem, with a little bit of thought, figuring out what they all stand for, but readers new to the genre might not be familiar with them all.It's a minor issue.
Completing the package is the gorgeous cover art of Tomas Kuklik.A beautiful collage of scenes from the book, you'll find yourself constantly flipping back to view it and pictorially relive the scene you just read.They say never to judge a book by its cover but I'm afraid to say I did – and I wasn't disappointed in the least.
Seeing the world through new eyes
Category: Blogging
Having a kid has definitely changed me. It's changed my outlook on life. It's changed the way I feel about certain things (for example, I've never been afraid of flying but now I hate getting in an aircraft without my family) - but it's also made me look at the world a lot differently.
For some bizarre reason, when I look at things now, I just see resources and despair at how much of them we are using. I never gave it a second thought before but now, I guess, with a child, I think about her and what her world is going to be like. I wonder what kind of world my generation is going to pass on to her.
For example, I'll look at a car and think, "That's a big hulk of steel" and then I'll look at the other 200 cars on the highway around me and think about how this is just one highway in America and how there are millions of cars all over the country - and that's just one country - multiply that worldwide - that's a crap load of steel - and where is it all coming from? I mean, that stuff is mined and extracted from ore. What kind of a cavity are we leaving beneath our feet?
Then I go in the supermarket and see the tins of tuna lined up on the shelf and I go through the same thought process. This is just one supermarket, there are millions of these across the country and they all stock tuna. At what point do we just exhaust the supply?
Now before you label me as some tree hugging environmentalist let me assure you that I am not. I'm really not. But I find these thoughts creeping in to my consciousness more and more on a daily basis. I just want my daughter to have a decent world to live in.
Today I took the first steps in fighting back.
We get a ridiculous amount of junk mail. I swear we get between 5 and 7 catalogs a day in the post. That's a LOT of paper. Most of them we don't even look at and trash straight away. That's criminal!!! Today I took it upon myself to start calling these companies and have us taken off their mailing lists. Today I called five. I am going to make it my goal to set aside five minutes each day and call at least three vendors to get taken off their mailing lists. Maybe in some small way I can do my part to save the planet.
Of course the irony of all of this is that I'm an author and there's a whole bunch of books with my name on containing a whole lot of paper.
Nominated to the Preditors and Editors readers poll for 2007
Category: Writing and Poetry
After a busy December (see previous blog post), things seem to be snowballing a little for me in January.
Project U.L.F. got two significant nods in January, the first was from Angela Shuch, the SciFi Chick, who initially reviewed the book when it came out in February and gave it a great review at the time. Last week, Angela listed the book as one of her top thirteen reads of 2007. To see the complete list, click here. It's probably the first and last time I'll ever appear on the same list as JK Rowling!
Following that, I found out yesterday that another of the books reviewers, Sabrina Williams, whose blog can be found here, nominated the book to the Preditors and Editors readers poll for 2007. At the time of writing, the book is ranked fourth in the Science Fiction category.
If you would like to support me and cast your vote for Project U.L.F., please click here.
With two successful book signings and talks at a local library and high school, December was a busy and successful month for me.
The first book signing I ever did was at a mall down the Jersey shore last summer.At the time, being new to the whole author promotion thing, I didn't really take into consideration the timing.In hindsight, booking a signing on a baking hot summer's day at a mall three miles from the beach probably wasn't the smartest thing to do.That said, I managed to sell all but one of the books they had on hand for me that day.
After that experience I decided to curb the book promoting activities for the summer and focus more on doing signings from fall through spring, when people are more likely to be at the malls.Hence a rather busy December.
I had two signings booked, the first at Waldenbooks at Indian River Mall in Vero Beach, Florida.I was excited to sign at this store since it was one of the staff there who had read one of my ARC's (Advanced Reading Copies) and liked it so much who was really responsible for the store stocking my book.It was a thrill to meet someone who was enthusiastic about my book.It was a successful day and I sold out of all the books they had for me.
My second signing was back at the Borders Express at Monmouth Mall, New Jersey, where again, I cannot thank the staff enough for their enthusiasm and support.As a new author, you really need the booksellers to get behind you and support you and these guys always have done that for me.
The day was a resounding success.As I was setting up I saw a young man hanging around.I asked him if he was waiting for me and he said he was.Two of his friends had read Project U.L.F. and had recommended it to him, so he was stopping by to pick up a copy.It was exciting to learn that people were recommending my book.Later on that day, a man came by, bringing with him a copy of the book that he had already purchased and read.He enjoyed it so much he wanted to stop by and have me sign his book for him.He also said he had loaned his copy to his daughter who had also read the book and she had enjoyed it so much she had written a note to me which he gave me.My first piece of fan mail!
I sold out of all my books in just over two hours.I wish I'd had more copies available. I think I could have sold a lot more.
I did two talks in December, both of them booked as a result of an article that appeared about me in the Asbury Park Press.One at Brielle Public Library and the other to the Science Fiction and Fantasy club at The Christian Brothers Academy.
The first was a great experience for me since it was my first time reading my work and talking publicly to people about it, so it was a great way to practice what hopefully will be a more frequent talk.
The second talk was also a lot of fun. The staff at The Christian Brothers Academy were kind enough to invite me to talk to their Sci Fi and Fantasy club.I talked a little bit about myself and the book and read a little and then fielded some questions.One of the questions I got asked was "Do you ever worry that people aren't going to like your book?"I replied "Of course!"
As an author I find I am constantly worried that someone isn't going to like my book.You know it's going to happen sometime (You can't please everyone), but you hope that everyone that reads it is going to enjoy it.Certainly as a new author, I always wonder if someone's going to come up to me and tell me I'm a fraud, that I'm just playing at this author game.When you write a book, you really wear your heart on your sleeve and put yourself out there.There's almost a degree of arrogance about it (I like to think of it more as pride), so you know when the knocks come, you're just going to have to take them on the chin.
To finish my talk, I decided on some spontaneity and played a "Write a book" game along the lines of "Whose line is it anyway?"The idea was to show the students how to take a basic premise and flesh it out into a story by asking questions about characters and their motives.It was totally improvised and even I didn't know if it was going to work but the students had lots of great ideas and we had a lot of fun with it.It is definitely something I'll incorporate into other talks I do at schools.
So all in all, a very successful December. Now I need to start planning my calendar for 2008!For information about where I'll be and what I'm doing, please check out my website at www.stuartclark.net
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Transformers Release date: 16 October, 2007
Storms of Vengeance is the debut novel from fantasy author John Beachem.Billed as Book One of The Lorradda Stone, Storms of Vengeance appears to be the prelude to a sweeping, epic saga.
When intruders break into the city's capital the Kingdom of Faranin is thrown into turmoil. The Merphite councilman Relex Unara lies dead, slain in his own bed and the imposters, who seem to be versed in the outlawed practice of magic, have fled after stealing an ancient artifact which, to the casual observer, seems to be nothing more than a piece of rock.Questions need to be answered.Who is the murderer and why did they want the Merphite dead? And who are the strangers and what do they want with a simple stone?
Thrown into this chaos and turmoil are two young friends, Calton Relanas and Ratel Eresgot.Both members of the city guard, both now being called upon to do their part for their King and the Kingdom.The ensuing investigation will see both of them facing dangers as they travel the Kingdom in search of answers.Answers that hint at something dark and forbidding.Something that has been set in motion and threatens to destroy them all.
Storms of Vengeance is an impressive debut from Beachem. In it he has crafted a complex mystery played out by engaging characters.Whilst it is clearly fantasy, Beachem has succeeded in shaking off some of the genre's clichés, introducing new races over and above the usual fantasy fare and giving elves a working over which sees them as vicious, feral creatures feared by all.It makes for a refreshing change.
The cast of characters is enormous and Beachem handles this aspect of the book well, bringing enough back story to each to make them identifiable and keep the reader interested but never over-doing it to the point where it becomes confusing.
At times I found the book a little slow but I think that was just symptomatic of the need to create the world and characters within the book.Clearly, the Lorradda stone series is an ambitious trilogy.The story definitely hit its stride once Beachem could concentrate more on the story telling than on the world building.
Storms of Vengeance leaves you on a cliff hanger which may irk some, but to those I say the good news is that book two of the series "The Hunter and The Marked" will be released soon.
For more information about the author and The Lorradda Stone series, visit www.beachembooks.com
I spent last weekend at the Necronomicon convention in Tampa, Florida.
It was a really fun event and I had a great time meeting other authors, speaking on panels and taking pictures of con-goers in all their fancy costumes. (See my album for more pictures).
I had the very good fortune of being set up next to charming fellow author M.B.Weston
Her debut novel A Prophecy Forgotten was also released earlier this year and has received rave reviews. I was thrilled to be able to exchange books with her and look forward to reading her novel which she describes as "A guardian angel story of war and treason."
As someone who has read a lot of fantasy, I'm excited by this book. There are way too many Tolkein derivatives out there and "A Prophecy Forgotten" looks to bring something fresh and exciting to the genre.
cynical
