Taking the Good from the Bad

My summer of travel is over. In June, I was telling everyone that I would be heading off to London for a bit, followed by a trip out to India for a bit longer. A little over a month ago, I returned from India and concluded what may be a recurring theme for my summers, in that I keep referring to them as "The worst summer ever" each year. I was to be in London for a few weeks training employees from my day job on our software product. Once complete, I was to travel out to India for an extended visit of about six weeks for training activities as well. I ended up being in each location for a couple weeks, while the mid-summer activities included being prepared for my impending India trip and tending to a project on fire. We use that term for projects which either have severe loss of resources unexpectedly or otherwise a deliverable date we would need a TARDIS to hit.

My day job had consumed my summer and my ambition of completing my book by now is a complete failure.

Out of the Bad, comes the good...

I actually started writing this blog the week of my return from India and I was a bit miffed, to say the least. When returning to this site, I also saw a blog in my drafts from June titled "What if you're a part-time writer?" The theme is the same, although my frustration is a bit greater these days. My dream job does not pay me enough money to live my current life. On the other hand, I really like my career in the software field. I guess the question is, 'How do I balance these careers?'.

I'm on vacation this week and so far, I've been able to write a chapter, return to my blog and sleep in a little bit. As any writer knows, you can't be a vacation writer because inspiration does not happen on schedule. I've been toying around with the idea of a Sorcerer who can travel through time in Alorya, but I can tell you that I've had at least three moments in which I had the biggest and brightest idea completely die in my head since I wasn't focused on writing at that moment. Oh well...

Keeping a positive mindset, I have not given up. I haven't picked up my bass in years. I haven't played sports in years. There are so many things that I love to do, but instead of doing them, I focus on my top priorities in life. Career, family and enough relaxation to survive. AND, I haven't given up on my writing either. Like an old friend, I can go to my computer and type a few pages without much effort. Conversations picked up midway from where we left off months ago. There's such a comfort in knowing that it's always there waiting for me whenever I can spare a few moments.

Book Review - Fancies Followers by Jannet Ridener

I once had a gun put to my head in the 7th grade and was forced to read Shakespeare. I walked away from the incident believing that Romeo and Juliet was a great story, but I had a bit of trouble understanding the colloquialisms. Fancies Followers closed the gap for me and made A Midsummer Night’s Dream into wonderful tale I could really sink my teeth into.

Jannet Ridenner’s style is reminiscent of my favorite author, Terry Pratchett. What begins as a long and complex sentence generally ends with unexpected humor and sometimes, downright hilarity.

The story begins with Theron, the King of the Faeries, taking a stroll through the small town of Minerva. When he decides to strip and enjoy the park in the nude, he sends the town into a spiral of chaos, which we mortals are ill-equipped to understand. The mortals caught up in the divine shenanigans are Mia, Elaine, Alex, Emmett, Weaver, and Polly. Each character is created to be someone we've all known at some point in our lives. There are even moments of embarrassment, which made me blush a little bit.

Robin, Mudslide, Theron, and Eugenia round out the divine faeries, although it seems the entire world is caught in the eternity long quarrel between the King and Queen of the Faeries, Theron and Eugenia. Strange weather patterns, talking insects, and unexpected romances carry the story to its conclusion in which everyone (more or less) falls in love with their seemingly predestined partners.

I tend to shy away from novels with even the slightest hint of a love triangle involved, but Fancies Followers combined fantasy that this escapist can truly yearn for with humor which came at the most unexpected moments. Fancies Followers is a great book for anyone who loves fantasy mixed with romance and some offbeat humor.

A Generational Thing - Music

I thought of this topic when I was at a stop light. It was a nice day and I had the windows down. My mind started to wonder off and I was hoping the guy behind me would have an aneurism when he noticed I won't hit the gas the exact second the light turned green. Somewhere between wondering what green tasted like and which side of a coin was heavier, I heard a familiar tune coming out of the car which had just pulled up next to me. Bon Jovi was living on a prayer, not five feet from me, but I did not bother to look at who was driving. My mind already gave me the image of a familiar woman in her mid-thirties driving an Acura. The Left-Turn signal had changed to green and out of the corner of my eye, I saw a man in his seventies driving a Mercedes ML-63 (a hundred thousand dollar car). My mind did a quick mental calculation of the meaning of the song versus the life that gentleman was living. No sir, he was not living on a prayer, he was surfing on a cloud. Performers like Springsteen, Bon Jovi and Bob Dylan would never have been successful if they sang about being a Rock Star, making tons of money and having women throwing themselves at them. A good performer can connect with their audience and give a reflection of society of that era. Some audiences want to live vicariously through the performer, so those performers have their place and time as well. What I remember my father telling me about Rock 'n Roll though had forever shaped my image of the genre. He told me he played the Rolling Stones for my grandparents at some point in the 60's and they hated it. For it to be Rock 'n Roll,he said, your parents have to hate it. I read an article a while back in which Alice Cooper said as much about what was considered Rock 'n Roll for the modern day. They may be playing the same riff and beat as they did thirty years ago, but if your grandfather is blasting it in his Mercedes, it's not Rock 'n Roll. Within the last decade, I went to a Metallica concert with my mom (yes, my mom). I sat around people who were between the ages of ten and fifty. Linkin Park had opened for Metallica at Giant Stadium that day, and I remember the older people around me shaking their heads as the Nu Rock band played their hits. I said to myself, "Hey kids, your parents hate it, so it must be Rock 'n Roll". I was right. After the concert I had to consider that Metallica was not Rock 'n Roll anymore. They're a great band, that's for sure, but they weren't Rock 'n Roll. I had to accept that being in my thirties; it was still okay for me to like Linkin Park as well as Metallica. Hell, I like Elvis and Johnny Cash! In time, I will be of the age where my kid plays a song that I will absolutely hate. That song will be Rock 'n Roll. When I relate it to Sci-Fi, I notice that I've yet to read a book which takes a stab at predicting the direction of music in a futuristic Sci-Fi type of way. We have to understand that when Sci-Fi becomes our reality in fifty or so years, we will hate that music. I thought about including the most repulsive sounding music I could imagine in my next book. That repulsive music that I hate will the futuristic Rock 'n Roll. We will all hate it and that's a good thing.

Shipping off to London

It looks like it's definitely going to happen.  My company is going to be sending me to work in their London office for a few weeks in June.  From there, I expect to go to India in July.  I'm not really going to get into my level of excitement for this trip since I think it's obvious.  Instead, I'm going to write about a vow I made to myself regarding my summer business trips.

I will complete the first draft of my second novel by the time I return from India.

It's only a first draft and I know I went through over twenty drafts for my debut novel Alorya.  I don't think I'll be as cautious for my second book as I was my first, so I'll probably only make ten drafts.  :-)

The reason for my caution is simple - Once it's out, it's out.  If it's worth putting your name on it, it's worth taking the time to make it as good as you can possibly make it.

Podcast - Author Interview with Jon Teetsell

I had a great time chatting with Quinn Barrett of Wise Bear Books.  Although I was nervous at the beginning, it quickly turned into a chat about Science Fiction and eventually my book Alorya.  The most interesting part of the interview for me, was that she asked me questions about Alorya that no one had ever asked.  By asking me about some of the complicated names in Alorya, it brought me back to questions I had been preparing for back in 2008 when I finished writing my first "acceptable" version of Alorya.  To be honest, the interview was exactly what I had been expecting back in those days.

When I first shared my work with friends and acquaintances back then, they had asked me about Scarlett or Aiden.  Soon, the line of questions came to be about the Jaadugar and the Sorcerers.  All in all, it was questions like this which led me to kind of expect the unexpected.  It was because I didn't know what to expect that I became so nervous.  Prior to the interview, Quinn had provided me a list of questions she might ask so I could prepare myself, but when she actually asked me about Mercer, I was thrilled.  He was definitely the character I had the most fun writing about.

Please enjoy the podcast!  With experiences like this, I hope to make many more.

Wise Bear Book - Interview with Author Jon Teetsell

To say that I'm nervous, is like the sun asking for air conditioning and perhaps a little lemonade.

This will be my first ever recorded interview.  I'll be doing a little Q & A with Quinn Barrett of Wise Bear Books tomorrow at 1PM EST.

Quinn Barret is the author of Invisible Snow available in Paperback and on Kindle.

Not that I expect anyone I know to call in, but I'm putting it out there:

Call in to speak with the host

(646) 200-0260

Of note:

•  I'm very soft spoken and once, I was told I sound like Jim Henson's Kermit the Frog.

Writing in the Zone

Sometimes, the temperature is just right.  Sometimes, it's the dewey smell after the summer rain.  I've noticed over the course of my life that seasons are highly influential when it comes to my creativity.  I had recently been awake for a couple days straight and on that night, I found myself sitting in my living room opening my senses to a Staten Island spring.  It's been warmer than usual and we had all the windows in the house open.  The smells of budding flowers, the sounds of birds going crazy and the feel of nice warm breezes made their way through my windows.  At around 3am, I had a moment of self-awareness.  I should be writing, I thought.  It was the spring after Aiden was born that I burned through the pages of my first draft of Alorya.  I would stay up late to feed and care for him, while Regina caught up on some much needed sleep.

I don't know if it's possible, but I'm going to try to blog about getting into the Zone.  I first heard the term in the days when I played basketball for hours on end and it's a moment when everything goes right and the energy is endless.  When I was writing Alorya, I would get into that Zone and emerge with 40-50 pages that for the life of me, I can't explain their inspiration or source.  I sometimes tell people that the book wrote itself, but I edited the first draft.  It was the most amazing thing I had ever done and I sometimes find myself acting like a junky waiting for that next moment in the Zone.

It was during the other night when I may have found the formula:

• The environment has to be perfect.  You may not have discovered your environment, but when you do, try to replicate it whenever you're ready to write.
• Make it personal.  No matter the topic, we all have some feeling one way or another.  If you don't have it, don't write about it.  Draw from that feeling when you write.
• Go off on a tangent.  You can always go back and edit, but sometimes while writing about "A", a few thoughts on topic "B" pop up in our heads.  Write it down.  You can move or delete it during a later edit if you don't like it, but the important thing is that something about "A" inspired you to think about topic "B".
• Do Not Check Your Spelling and Grammar.  You can always do that later.  If you're serious about writing, you're going to hire an editor anyway.  Let the story flow and don't worry about spelling and grammar for now.
• Get comfortable.  The perfect environment should always include a comfort.  You may find yourself writing for hours, so don't let the pain of sitting on cactus be a distraction.
• Plan to be alone.

I would love to bottle it and sell it, but I'm just hoping to be able to give some of my own insight into the Zone.  We write because we love to do it.  I love to write because of those exhilarating moments when the world around me become ethereal and my story comes to life.

ICON 31 - Review

This was the best ICON I have ever attended.  Since 2008, my friends and I would travel out to Stony Brook to nerd ourselves up at the Sci-Fi Convention.  It wasn't what I was expecting at the time, but I found it to be really good if you were comfortable with being a participant instead of an observer.  Like our college years revisited, we would trek (he he) over to the Students Activity Center and sit in a classroom while we read the summary of the activity.

"Evil Laugh Contest"
"Star Wars vs. Star Trek"
"Furry's: How not to be creepy?"

Subsequent years proved to be less entertaining.  It seemed like an evolving experiment which would range from "very adult" to "family friendly".  Those of us from the Golden Age of Sci-Fi have children and in some cases, grand-children.  While we can appreciate adult-themed classes, it was awkward sitting with our children during some of those classes.  In 2011, it was way too tame.  Adult themed classes occurred during the evening, but during the day we were subjected to Twilight, Harry Potter and Teletubbies.  I was a touch uncomfortable with the middle aged man dressed as a teletubby, but that's just me.

ICON 31 brought the perfect blend of balance.  Enter Doctor Who!  The first class of the day, I sat in a "Dalek Building" class with my wife and son.  Steve Gostelow was an independent contractor who built Dalek's for the BBC and hosted the class in a Q&A style forum.  We discussed how to actually build a Dalek prop.  Any and all questions were answered, including how much the BBC paid for the work (not much).




Star Wars Rep in the Upper-Right


I sat on a panel for "Star Wars vs. Star Trek" as the lone Star Wars supporter.  I had some serious fun with the Trekkies and they certainly had some fun at my expense, as well.  My friend Sunil peppered me with comments aimed to question my intelligence for actually preferring Star Wars over Star Trek.  I stuck to my guns an pointed out that I had no trouble understanding Star Trek.  I usually just fell asleep before the show was over to register an opinion.

After this, I went to a "Game of Thrones" class, in which we discussed the book and television show.  The focus was on Season 2, which also covered opinions from the first book (Season 1).  In the end, they showed a couple trailers for the second season on HBO.

I had a blast.  I debated dressing up as Doctor Who, but in the end I'm glad I didn't.  I don't have the "stick thin" physique of Matt Smith and I wasn't about to shave off my Goatee again.

I look forward to seeing everyone in Stony Brook next year!

The Rebel Alliance

The symbol of tomorrows Empire

We were young and we were angry at the world.  We either were fighting for our place in the world or we were fighting to change to world to our liking. The rebel in search of his or her Death Star shakes their fist at the establishment and years later they'll sit back and think of how silly it all was.  Was it really silly or was it silly because the world we find ourselves in as adults is the world we created for ourselves?

Are smugglers who pilot fast cargo ships with secret compartments for hiding "spice" really just drug dealers?

Are the soldiers who fight for the Rebel Alliance either deserters of the Imperial Military or just those without the mental discipline hack it in the Empire?

What about the politicians who lead the Alliance?  They're traitors, right?  Elected into office in the Empire, they fled to the Rebel Alliance with critical top secret information which will be used to launch the next terrorist attack which likely killed billions.

Suppose you're a monarch.  You hold court with your top knights in an effort to clear out the forest of hideous Orcs.

If you send those knights off to the mines to clear out the Goblins, aren't you just trading blood for ore?

Do the Orcs occupy the forest simply because it is their home?

What exactly makes that wizard evil?  Are you really trying to hold the wizard to normal human morals when in reality there is nothing normal about a wizard?  That wizard was born with that power.  It's a Divine right of wizards to use that magic however they want.  Kind of like the way humans use their power however they want, right?

It is so simple in worlds like these.  Without much effort on our part, we cheer on the terrorist who blew up the Death Star.  We know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the mines of Moria should be cleared of Goblins to a man, woman and child.

If I could be any race from the Sci-Fi / Fantasy world, it would definitely be a Human-Jedi.

Honest answers to honest questions:
With the power of a Jedi, would I ever use a Jedi Mind-Trick to take advantage of someone?
Yes.
Would I ever try to take over the galaxy?
No.  I have no wish to govern, but I'd just pretty much do whatever I wanted.
Dark side or Light side?
Both.  I'll used whatever powers I have, but I'd tend to be a nice guy.

Rebel or Empire?
This is kind of the whole point of this blog.  When I'm in my early 20's struggling to find my place in the world, I'd obviously be a part of the rebellion.  On the other hand, with the additional wisdom I've picked up over the years, an Empire can be changed for the better.  Bringing down an Empire would bring a chaos which would last for centuries.

I love knowing that when I turn on the faucet, clean water comes out.  Or when I flick on a light switch, the light actually turns on.

The concept of basic luxuries took a serious turn for the worse when the Roman Empire fell.

Doctor Who

In 2005, my friend Lee was so excited. We worked together at a law firm, in their IT Dept and sat next to each other. Lee being from the UK and I, from the USA, we loved to chat about things from the perspective of our native countries. X-Files was pretty much history, and at the time, I would only watch American sports on TV. This was actually quite boring, since sports had started to become unappealling to me. I really miss those days because it felt as though 2005 was a year in which I left my cacoon to be the person I am today. One of the TV shows he had been excited about was the upcoming return of Doctor Who. I had heard of Doctor Who, but only in a passing joke from Rowan Atkinson's skit at a comedy show from years back.

As time marches on, of all of Lee's suggestions, it was the one show that I did not follow up on.

Five years later, while flipping past channels, I came across BBC America and saw an interesting show was on. It was the 2010, Doctor Who Christmas Special. Michael Gambon played a scrooge in what seemed to be a bit of a steampunk world, in which fish could swim through the clouds. To say that I am obsessive, is an understatement. I had five years of catching up to do and I rushed to Best Buy to purchase my latest obsession. Season by season, I was enthralled. I even managed to get my sister into it.

To give a summary, Doctor Who is a Time Lord who uses a time machine to travel through time and space. The time machine takes the form of a 1950's era Police Box from London (see above). The main thing that gives the show longevity (1961 - 1989 & 2005 - Present), is the fact that the Doctor can die. If he dies, he regenerates into a new Doctor with all new personality traits and appearance. A new actor would take over the leading role of the show with an entirely different outlook. It's almost as if he's a different person assuming the identity of a Legendary Character, right? The Doctor is usually accompanied by a young girl and nowadays that the Doctor is played by younger actors, there can sometimes be an attraction between the Doctor and his Companion.

Doctor Who has everything when it comes to entertainment. Deep down to its core, it's a Sci-Fi television show and is good for all ages. This April, we'll begin the seventh season of the latest run of Doctor Who. If you have BBC America, it's worth giving it a look. Enjoy!

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

"I can't deal with Sci-Fi," said anonymous.  "It's too wierd."

"Sure you can," I said.  "A story is a story.  Sci-Fi really is just background. Have you ever seen Star Wars?"

"No."

"Lord of the Rings?" I asked.

"Ha," said anonymous.  "No way."

This person actually told me that as a Sci-Fi geek, we can't communicate on that level.  It was my turn to laugh.  Alternate History has been disguised as Sci-Fi for a while now.  Our sixteenth president battling Vampires to me, is the perfect example.  Fans of Abe who are looking for something a little different would enjoy this movie.  Fans of Jane Austen might enjoy "Pride & Prejudice and Zombies".  Perhaps "Sense & Sensibility and Sea Monsters"?

Turtledove has an entire collection of alternate history novels.  What if the south won the civil war?  Would it have meant that we would have sided with the Nazi's in World War II?  How would technology have evolved if such an event occured?  Today's Sci-Fi writer will be remembered tomorrow as a Science Pioneer.

The same is true of all life.  When we look to the future, we prepare ourselves for what is to come.  In the case of this blog, we can sometimes look to the past and wonder what would have happened if luck did not favor the victorious at that moment in time.  It is said that the survivors tell the stories of the past.  Surely there must be some piece of history which has been fabricated by a really good storyteller, right?  If at the end of the book, you found entertainment and possibly learned one or two things, then the job of the storyteller is done.

Ever wonder what would have happened if King George and King Louis saw the writing on the wall with all of these revolutionary types and actually stamped them down before they got out of control?  No?  Perhaps not....

What scares you?

Do you have any childhood fears? Before any answer creeps into your head, I want you to dismiss any fears of losing your job, the death of a loved one or even your own death. I want you to start thinking about that shadow over by the dresser when you are trying to go to sleep at night. Well, we all have those shadows, but it's what our brain tells us it is that really defines what we're scared of, right? Is it a witch? Is it an alien? Is it Jack the Ripper? They all take a similar shape, but what we convince ourselves it is what really makes us scared.

I have two basic fears which materialize in two ways. That shadow in the corner? Yeah, that's a witch. That brush of air against the hairs on my neck? That's a spider. I guess, psychologically, I could say I'm afraid of women who are furious with me. That would explain the witch. Everyone who knows me knows that I get violent when I'm tickled. It kind of explains the spiders. It's more than that though. I'm not one of those people who go around telling themselves that they don't give a damn. If a woman is or has been furious with me, I can pretty much turn them off with my mental radar so quick that I barely register what they're even mad at. When I asked, "What's wrong?", it's because I turned down all of the shouting and decided to come back once things got calm. Spiders? Little known fact about me - I used to be an exterminator. I worked for Terminix. To say I have killed a few spiders in my time would be an understatement.

A good storyteller can overcome all of the mental barriers we've put up since our childhood. They can remind you of every night you spent under your blankets as a child believing, against all odds, that if you stay under the blanket and stay quiet, this demonic force of evil will give up and leave you alone. A good storyteller can make you scratch yourself absentmindedly as you read about the colony of fire ants covering the crying child entirely. Even writing that last sentence kicked in my "defender of all children" program.

The true masters of horror found a way to get inside every readers head and plant irrational ideas which scare the daylights out of them. We all have different fears, but the master of horror can get you scared of something you're normally not afraid of for a period of time. I'm not scared of sharks. I'm fascinated by them. I love sharks. A master of horror though, can change my love into fear for a few hours though. After Jaws, I walked away from the movie very angry. I knew that there are now going to be more people who would be fine with the slaughter of these wonderful creatures. I also give a nod to Peter Benchley and Steven Spielberg for being so masterful at their craft. It kind of makes you wonder what would happen if they put their talents towards making your scared of other things you're normally not scared of, right? America loves cars, right? Each household will generally have more than one car, which shows the national devotion.

Ever heard of a book called Christine? What about Maximum Overdrive?

We all know about Southern Hospitality in America right? Ever see Deliverance?

Kindle Fire - A week in the life

First, please understand that I'm not here to push a product. I do not own any stock in Amazon or Apple. I happen to own a Kindle Fire, which I also happen to really like.

I was at a meeting with fellow writers from Staten Island and the discussion about eReader's became a topic with the most teeth for that day. Taking place in the Huguenot Library, surrounded by books, the Library manager had asked us what we thought of the future of libraries. He was referring to the hurricane of eReader's in the current market. eBooks will be outselling traditional books for eternity, but the question is, will traditional books go extinct?

This past week, my son played hours and hours of Angry Bird's on the Kindle Fire. I watch a TV show from the 90's called Neverwhere (Neil Gaiman). Regina was able to get caught up on Tudors, which is also a TV program. On an eReader!!! I have read a total of 1 book on that eReader and I think Regina has read a couple. In the meantime, I'm also reading Snuff, by Terry Pratchett (Hardcover). That is all I'm able to do with the book, so when I'm done reading it, I'll just put it on the shelf and may re-read it in a few years when my curiosity strikes.

It is because of that scenario that I rest my case. But, I digress...

You can cut down a tree, turn it into a bunch of books and after they are read (hopefully), and then they'll be put on a shelf taking up real estate. Not all eReader's can do everything described above, to be honest. If you were to be lucky enough to have an iPad 2, you'd be able to do that and more. The versatility of the eReader is causing many trees to breathe a sigh of relief.

The nail in the coffin comes down to economics. I have hundreds of hardcover and softcover books in my library. My shelves are no longer organized. Books have filled up the shelf to the point where other books sit on top of those books, as well as in front of them.

At an average of $20 per book, I must have spent around $4,000 dollars.

An eReader can cost about $300 - $500. An eBook can go anywhere from 99 cents to $20. At a greater up front cost, over time the eReader will save you money. And that is just from a book perspective. Try reading your favorite cancelled TV Show on a hardcover. Try playing your most addictive mobile game on a paperback or a magazine. Try ordering a pizza from your telephone book.

Above all, enjoy reading. It's just something to think about.

Author Profile - Terry Pratchett

“Give a man a fire and he's warm for the day, but set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life.”
― Terry Pratchett, Jingo

By now, many of you know that Terry Pratchett is a major influence on my writing.  To take it a step further, he is also my favorite writer.  Right now, Americans are saying "Terry who?".  It can be said that Americans have a difficult time with British humor.  Maybe it's a little dry, I don't know?  I love it!  My television defaults to BBC America, what can I say?

Terry Pratchett writes with some of the most complex sentence structure I've ever read.  At times, I'll have to re-read a sentence just to make sure it said what I thought it said.  It wasn't until I tried out a little experiment which really gave me that moment of clarity.  I read the sentence aloud.  My mind had been trained through the education system to expect sentences to be structured a certain way, but when I read Terry Pratchett aloud, I was surprised.  This is how I speak.  Granted, the Brits use slang which takes some getting used to for an American, but it really struck me as the easiest way to understand him completely.  I took that idea to a Star Wars novel and it was a disaster.  Once my mind was prepared for reading a Terry Pratchett novel, he standing as an author, in my mind, shot right to the top.  It was amazing!

“In ancient times cats were worshipped as gods; they have not forgotten this.”
― Terry Pratchett

I started writing Alorya with a bunch of Terry Pratchett novels under my belt, but continued writing as I had been taught.  When I was a fan of John Elway, I emulated him as a quarterback.  I watched Clyde Drexler and immediately went outside to see how high I could glide.  Why not emulate Terry Pratchett as a writer?  In America?!?  Are you crazy?!?  Yes and Yes.  I think he deserves it.  I think anyone who takes a "standard" and turns it on it's head is worth a second look.  If it comes to them as second nature and they're really good at it, then you are watching a genius of your time at work.  It is because humans are so brilliant that we were able to appreciate genius when the genius is still alive, right?

“God does not play dice with the universe; He plays an ineffable game of His own devising, which might be compared, from the perspective of any of the other players [i.e. everybody], to being involved in an obscure and complex variant of poker in a pitch-dark room, with blank cards, for infinite stakes, with a Dealer who won't tell you the rules, and who smiles all the time.”
― Terry Pratchett, Good Omens

As you read that passage from Good Omens, your brain is begging and screaming for a period.  When you reach the end of the sentence though, it became a worthwhile journey (if you understand the humor).  When I read it the first time, I had to read it one more time just to make sure.  I did not laugh.  I smiled and said, "Very interesting, Mr. Pratchett."

At times, people would come to me and tell me my sentence structure is a bit weird.  At first glance, they say it's a run-on sentence.  Inside, I smile and say, I know.  I admittedly wrote a run-on sentence in a published book against the wishes of my editors.  Why?  To say 'thank you' to Mr. Pratchett!!!!!

“Five exclamation marks, the sure sign of an insane mind.”
― Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man

“It's not worth doing something unless someone, somewhere, would much rather you weren't doing it.”
― Terry Pratchett

Wizards and Robots - Can they co-exist? (Next on Maury)

There are those of us who prefer fantasy stories.  Give us a wizard, an elf or an orc any day of the week, right?  We prefer our supernatural protagonists to live in an exclusively natural world.  Others love the Sci-fi realm.  We want robots, space shuttles and geeky technology that most everyone will be calling "normal" in 50 years.  Finally, there are people like me who like both.  I like Star Wars, Harry Potter, Dune and Lord of the Rings almost equally.  All of those stories capture the escapism I look for, but they also bring the reader to see the world in another pair of eyes.

My question:  Can both Sci-fi and Fantasy exist in the same story?  I've heard quite a few "No!" answers and nearly had my head ripped off by a guy calling himself Stormageddon.

The entire story of Lord of the Rings could have been cut down to about 3 pages if Frodo had teleportation technology available.  Star Wars would have been painful if Luke and his buddies had to walk to the Death Star, right?  All of this pondering brought to mind one question:  How do you write a story which can include both Sci-fi and Fantasy without making it ridiculous?

I used the simple element of time, in Alorya.  There must have been a time when Captain Kirk's ancestors wore armor and bathe once a week.  There also must have been a time when Gandalf would become complacent due to the fact that he's a wizard living in a world of men (and hobbits).  After all, that is what Saruman's destiny was to become, right?  The dominator of a Middle Earth now that the Elves had run off to the West.

In my Prologue, I created an instance in which the continents of men were separated from the continents of Wizards and Barbarians.  They each evolved on their own for the most part, but as the technology advanced, they were in for a bit of conflict.  During the days of men wearing armor and bathing once a week, the Wizards dominated them.  As time progressed, the men discovered technology which would protect them from the Wizard.  In the true tradition of "The best defense is a good offense", there had to be a point where men turned their technological advances toward weapons to be used against the Wizards.

It's probably not a good idea to put the Enterprise in orbit around Middle Earth or have Hogwarts facing off against the Death Star, but you have to think that there must have been a time when both genres were an interesting match.  Let me stop before I start thinking about little blue elves in white hats co-existing with robots which transform in modes of transportation.

Book Interview on Staten Island Beacon

This past Saturday, I sat down with Megan McGibney to do an interview for my book Alorya. - Author Jon Teetsell Releases Pain and Book.

It was an absolute pleasure and easier than I thought it would be.  As some people know, I'm a notoriously bad interviewer when it comes to job interviews.  Amazingly, as soon as I got to chatting with Megan, I just opened up and let everything out.  Of course, that evening I was kicking myself for not mentioning one thing or another, but overall I thought it was a good one.

We focused on what led me to writing Alorya and how it got to the place we are today.  From there, we jumped from topic to topic with regards to a vampire book Megan is working on as well as the second piece in the Alorya saga.

It was fun and I'd want to do it again!

Good Reviews...

... and other kinds of reviews.

I had a friend tell me today that Alorya is a bit confusing after the first few chapters.  I thanked him for it.

Give it to me straight!  I can take it!  I'll only use it to get better at my craft.  :-)