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Coffee with David
Volume 1 Issue 2 September
1, 2010
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In this Issue
 Spotlight
on August
Spotlight
on Presentation on Internet Writing
Spotlight
on Science Fiction & Fantasy
Spotlight
on The Guardians: A Military Space Opera Novel
Spotlight
on
Herne’s Law: a Space Western Novel
Spotlight
on
Shattered Dreams: a Spy-Fi/Crime Drama Novel
Spotlight
on
Dark Medicine: a Gothic Horror Novel
Spotlight
on The Devil’s Bounty Hunter: a Paranormal
Crime Drama Novel
Spotlight
on
Haunted Days: a Supernatural Horror Novel
Spotlight
on Nomad’s Ocean: a Science Fiction Novel
Calendar of Events |
After
a rough August with events at my other full time job, leading to less
word production than I had hoped for, I am looking forward to
September. The Labor Day weekend is almost here and I am planning to
chain myself to my desk and enter mortal combat with my muse to take
advantage of the extra day away from the one job so to focus on the
writing job.
August
was not all gloom in my writing career. I managed to produce a few
articles for some newsletters, a poem, and add to my word count on a few
projects. I also joined the Missouri Poetry Society and the Society of
Professional Journalist. Further, on August 28, 2010, I had the
pleasure and honor to be part of the St. Louis Writers Guild Writers in
the Park writers’ conference where I presented a workshop on Writing for
the Internet and co-presented a workshop on Fantasy and Science Fiction
Writing.
Meanwhile, my muse has been cranking out short story ideas and poems.
There is a new poem I posted online and I will be sending a flash
fiction story out this month to a contest. Depending on my progress
with the novels, I will be writing some more short stories and poetry
soon.
Most
of my columnist work has been covering Medicare and Universal Health
Care and it continues. My latest articles are not available online.
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On
August 28, I presented a breakout workshop at the St. Louis Writers
Guild Writers in the Park writers’ conference discussing how to write
for the internet. The workshop had about 12 participants and covered
blogging, writing content, and online journalism. It dived into ethics,
legal issues, and elements of style for each of those three areas.
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On
August 28, I co-presented with Jaclyn Devey a breakout workshop at the
St. Louis Writers Guild Writers in the Park writers’ conference
discussing the elements of Fantasy and Science Fiction Writing. We
discussed what elements are necessary for good fantasy and science
fiction writing as well as some of the popular crossover genres and
where the trends may be going. The group started out with just three
participants but grew to be eight or nine—it started at 10 AM, so not
too surprised.
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I
wrote a rough draft of a military science fiction novel, titled The
Guardians, early last year. The novel was an experiment to help me
improve writing dialogue. The entire story is written as a script and I
intend to flush this it out into the full novel.
Unlike
Herne’s Law, The Guardians has all the physical trappings of Space
Opera. It still has science deep in it, but there are aliens, distant
worlds, and even faster than light travel. The Guardians is a story
exploring the changing role of the military—as peacekeepers,
peacemakers, and nation building more than just combat and warfare. Set
in the back drop of space, it is a study of failed nation states such as
Somalia and those that nearly have failed, where piracy and lawlessness
are the norm and the government is rancid and there is no hope as
warlords control everything.
My
goal is to have a completed draft of this novel ready for reviewers by
January.
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Despite all the chaos
that came with August, Herne’s Law is still running hard. At the time
of this writing, I am over 16,000 words. Mind, this is only half as
much as I expected to have completed at this time, but progress is
progress. With the Labor Day weekend coming up, I plan to have that
word count doubled.
While Herne’s Law is a
Space Western novel, I do not want it to be simply a space opera, so it
is steeped in science. Some of my word count is less than I wanted it
to be because I am triple checking facts and doing calculations to be
sure the draft is as accurate as it can be with the science it handles:
genetics, computer science, space science, and so forth.
As I write
this spotlight I so wish to share with you some of the scene elements I
have weaved in, but I must resist temptation. I am sorry, but you never
know what may or may not be cut from draft to draft and I don’t want to
get anyone’s expectations up—nor reveal any secrets. However, I will
say at this time I am still pushing for the rough draft to be finished
by October 31.
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The
question of immigration in the United States continues to simmer as
Mexican organized crime cartels take pot shots at and threaten US troops
and law enforcement. As I work on this spy-fi/crime drama novel I try
to imagine the real people who are caught in the everyday drama. I try
to imagine the police and the undercover detectives who are trying to
stop the armies of the drug cartels. I try to imagine the life of the
criminals who push the drugs, feed the guns, and run the illegal traffic
of humanity—most of the worse being white slavery and sex slavery. I
think of the illegal immigrant who made it into the United States to try
to find a better life, as all the immigrants who came before them (legal
and illegal).
I see
the actions taken by the left and the right of the political spectrum
and wonder. I have said before I have a unique perspective on the
situation and I do part of my heritage in America dates back to the
Stone Age, others from the 1600 and 1700s, and on the other side of my
family lines I am second generation American. Neither side of the
debate has the answers nor are they all correct and incorrect in their
positions.
Like
the cops in my fictional story, I sit waiting for things to boil over.
In the case of Shattered Dreams, the protagonists of the story get to do
something and hope it defuses the situation and the violence that has
come.
I am
still planning for this novel to be rough drafted by the end of the
year.
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While
I know some readers would love a word count on this story, I am going to
hold off on that. The real reason is not to be cruel and raise
expectations, but the fact is how much of the original version I have
interwoven into the new version. As I rework Dark Medicine, I cannot
help but wonder what Dan Curtis felt and thought when he reworked the
television series of Dark Shadows.
If you
have read my blogs in the past about this work, you will know that
Curtis’s original Dark Shadows is one of the inspirations for Dark
Medicine. (If you are a Dark Shadows fan, do not think I am rewriting
Dark Shadows with Dark Medicine. Far from it. It is only one thing
that inspired Dark Medicine.) Dark Medicine has also been inspired by
the works of Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, Anne Rice, and many other author’s
works.
I am
removing the expected due date of this work to be finished, but I am
working to have it completed by the end of the year.
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Characters are the name of the game with any story and as I research The
Devil’s Bounty Hunter, I have been getting more and more in touch with
the Protagonist Reo Pennington. Reo is as far from being politically
correct. Sadly, I was on a date when I had a “Reo” reaction to
something and let what her response would have been out of my mouth.
To
give you a taste of who Reo, let me describe the situation above. There
was an advertisement on a movie screen, you know the ones they run
before the main feature ever plays. This one was a public service
announcement to try to keep kids in school and to graduate from high
school. It went through the percentages of these kids would not be
eligible for descent jobs in the future, or may even end up in prison.
In the end it asked, “What do you say to these kids?” Reo’s response
(and the one that slipped out of my mouth by accident) was, “Thank you
for giving me a job?”
All I
can say is: I am looking forward to writing about this character soon.
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When I
began researching the story of a former priest and exorcist I never
imagined what I would learn and how far off Hollywood was (with the
exception of the movie the Exorcist. This is a study that should raise
the hair on the back of your neck—if you believe that such events are
real. I do and I am thankful for having spent time with a bishop
learning about Catholicism as a young man. Much of what he taught me
has kept me strong and helped me in this research.
The
prior learning and the research I am doing is also guiding the creation
of the story—its exploration of the main characters and what the story
universe would be like.
I know
some of my readers reading this may “pooh-pooh” the idea of supernatural
beings as backward or foolish. You are, of course, entitled to your
opinions. But, I will remind them and be both terrified and comforted
by the fact that science has not been able to explain away all the
mysteries in the universe yet nor will it ever be able to.
I do
not want my readers to believe that Haunted Days is a “simple horror
story about demonic possession”, if such things could ever be simple.
Haunted Days is a story of faith, anger, fear, loss of control,
forgiveness, and determination. It is an exploration of people who are
caught up in something beyond their imagination by no choice of their
own and how they would deal with it. It is a study into the minds,
hearts and souls of human beings—our light and our darkness.
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When I
was in college, if I remember correctly—maybe it was high school, I
watched a sci-fi television show that tried to approach the future
differently from how many then and now shows have done. The show was
Seaquest and the world it was in was an Earth that was over crowded, so
man had colonized the ocean. Seaquest only lasted a few seasons and
even though I was a fan at the time, I grew disappointed in some of the
plot lines and angles the producers and writers thought the show needed
to take.
But,
the idea of the world of Seaquest could be said to be an inspiration for
Nomad’s Ocean. Imagine for a moment that you live in a world where
there is no land. How would you live on the ocean? How would you grow
food? What about raising animals and so forth? Your world would be
changed drastically. In the case of Nomad’s Ocean, I am having to face
the question if the colonist can even live on the ocean.
On
Earth we are faced with hurricanes. While in some cases water
temperature and weather patterns can cause some tropical storms and
hurricanes to fizzle out, the fact is that it is land that causes the
storms to lose much of its devastating power. Now take the land away,
all you have is water, would there be hurricanes that died out or would
there be many roaming the oceans, growing stronger and merging with
other storms? If that is the case, living on the surface of such an
ocean would seem highly dangerous and most likely impossible. Such
colonist would be forced to live under the sea.
These
colonist would never see the light of day or stars or appreciate a
campfire in the glow of the moon. It would be a world unique and
different from the one we know where our days and nights are regulated
by such things. So research continues as I work to plot this story and
this world out.
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September Open Mic Reading at
Wired Coffee
Wired Coffee, 3860 South
Lindbergh Blvd.
Sunset Hills, MO 63127
September 14,
2010 from 7PM to 9PM
For more
information:
www.stlwritersguild.org and
www.wiredcoffee.net
October Reading at Poetry,
Prose & Pints
Dressel's Public House, 419 N. Euclid
St. Louis, MO 63108
October 5, 2010 from 7PM to
9PM
For more
information:
www.dresselspublichouse.com
October Open Mic Reading at
Wired Coffee
Wired Coffee, 3860 South
Lindbergh Blvd.
Sunset Hills, MO 63127
October 12,
2010 from 7PM to 9PM
For more
information:
www.stlwritersguild.org and
www.wiredcoffee.net
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