Tag: #Authors

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List of Best Cyber Security Thrillers

Cries of Dismay

Cyber Security Thrillers

OH, NO! Not ANOTHER list! On cyber security thrillers, yet. Aren’t there enough esoteric lists already?

Actually, no. At least, not of this type. When super reader Ben Fox of Shepherd.com approached me to compile a list of five notable books on a topic of my choice, I, too, was skeptical. My “To-Do” list immediately popped into mind (if you operate an online business, you know what I mean). If not that, doesn’t everyone have a list of usernames and passwords (mine’s over 50) they’ve squirreled away so well they can’t remember where it’s hidden? Outside of supplying a topic for my blog, why does the public need another recommendation list?

Raison d’etre for Cyber Security Thrillers List

First of all, there’s familiarity. Everyone who consults Amazon’s book list or pores through Goodreads or BookBub knows the format. All three of these sites and many others provide curated lists of recommended reading material. Their recommendations may be based on reader comments or ranked by sales figures, but they do separate the worthwhile reads from those that help pass the time. Author disclaimer: among time-wasters, reading rates as one of the best.

David Wllechinsky's Book of Lists

Second, there’s the pragmatism factor. Lists help us get through the welter of distraction, routine, and stress that constitutes daily living. As David Wallechinsky, co-author of The Book of LIsts, explained, “because we live in an era of overstimulation, especially in terms of information, . . . lists help us in organizing what is otherwise overwhelming.”

Third, lists have a rich and prodigious heritage. Aside from the Wallechinsky series mentioned above, Wikipedia devotes an entire article titled “List of Lists of Lists” which identifies all the articles within its pages that list other list articles. Furthermore, each of those pages provides links to other lists devoted to a particular topic.

Nor is this heritage limited to size and scope alone. Author Umberto Eco wrote a book in collaboration with the Louvre entitled The Infinity of Lists describing lists that appear in many major literary works. The topics explored range from Hesiod‘s list of the progeny of gods to Rabelais‘s list of bottom wipes.

Why My Cyber Security Thrillers List Is Different

Rationale

People make up lists for a variety of reasons and purposes. Some, as alluded above, help us organize our day. Others enable us to remember the details of our lives that have no other integral relationship other than appearing on that list. Still others enable evaluation by placing more noteworthy or valluable items ahead of others based on some arbitrary or objective scale. This latter form of listing is called ranking.

Educational Value

Eco's book of literary lists

My book list differs from other book lists in Ben Fox’s site because it identifies what are the best technothrillers that employ metadata as a major plot point. Readers claim to be familiar with the concept, but few thrillers depict applying it in a significant way. My research revealed fewer than ten books utilized the concept of metadata in their plots. Of these, only five contained principal characters who manipulated metadata for their livelihood . In most cases, the villains used metadata to further their ends.

Cyber Security Thrillers Methodology

As a result, my emphasis shifted from the conceptual to the pragmatic. Who would be more likely to use metadata to repulse miscreants using it for their nefarious schemes: cyber experts. More particularly, that meant protectors of computer information and technology, i.e. cyber security experts. My leisure reading produced several candidates; my research identified several more. Among these candidates, only five thrillers contained protagonists who used metadata in a significant way to do their jobs and protect their communities.

Cyber Security Thrillers Outcomes

Accordingly, I ranked these five thrillers on the basis of how prominently metadata appears in the storyline with this caveat. Little is more boring than reading about the hero applying hypertest (HTML) or Java script to foil crime. Along with character arc, rising action, and vivid description, the author also should display some familiarity with the intricacies of metadata to thwart criminals. By that reasoning, the best thrillers should suggest how the cyber hero or heroine’s cyber knowledge defeated the villain(s). It was on that basis I ranked the five titles chosen.

Wrap Up and Send Off

This Cyber Security Thrillers list doesn’t pretend to be exhaustive. Others may choose or recommend different titles than those selected. Yet, these titles represent the best integration of concept and narrative that I have read or listened to. In the course of compiling this list, one thing surprised me. Though Metadata Murders was written over twenty years ago and readers are more comfortable with the concept, its practitioners aren’t more prominently featured in techno- or cyber-thrillers. Regardless how you view that fact, this link will take you to my list of the five best cyber thrillers written over the past two decades.

My list will be published Monday, August 5th. Click on this link to the Shepherd recommendations site:

https://shepherd.com/best-books/technothrillers-with-a-cyber-security-protagonist

Read it, select one or two for your pleasure, and tell me what you think in the Leave A Reply section below.

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Is the New Immortals Series Fantastique?

Fantastique from the Beginning

Fantastique objects in Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights

Readers, critics in particular, often classify fantasy literature into many different types. In Wikipedia Fantastique is just one of over two dozen categories and subgenres. The distinctions sometimes seem arbitrary and overlap with obvious and more developed categorizations such as science fiction/speculative fiction, and horror.

Despite their importance for sellers and bookstores, these distinctions seldom matter to authors who write in the fantasy genre. After all, would William Shakespeare, care whether The Tempest fell into the romantic fantasy or paranormal fantasy camps? Or whether Prospero’s application of the supernatural seemed internally consistent or not? The important thing was that Prospero’s supernatural talents captured the audience’s attention then and captivate our amazement four centuries later.

So, how does the above correlate with the subject of this article’s title? Until I identified the five titles that influenced my decision to become an author, their subject matter never seemed coherent nor affected my arc as a professional writer. But before exploring how this exercise impacted my writing career, however, let’s examine what is meant by the term, Fantastique.

Definition of Fantastique

Fantastique is a French literary term that falls under the larger category of Fantasy fiction. LIke other forms of fantasy, fantastique stories contain supernatural elements in their narratives. Unlike other subgenres such as fable, high/low, or sword and sorcery, however, fantastique tales insert the supernatural into an otherwise realistic narrative framework. And unlike dark fantasy or magic realism stories, fantastique stories portray an element of doubt about the existence of the supernatural.

The Fantastique literary genre as defined by Todorov

According to the Bulgarian critic, Tzvetan Todorov, this element of uncertainty distinguishes it from the marvelous contained withn the English conception of Fantasy fiction. This narrative tension between the supernatural and the natural, the possible and the impossible, the logical and the illogical separates such stories from what Todorov characterizes as marvelous or conventional fantasy in which magical or supernatural elements and events occur in a normal or familiar way.  

The injection of the supernatural into an otherwise realitic portrayal of events places fantastique stories between the uncanny and the marvelous. Uncanny stories push reality to its limits as in Edgar Alan Poe‘s “The Fall of the House of Usher.” On the other hand, the characters in marvelous stories regard supernatural elements as being quite normal. J.K. Rowling‘s Harry Potter series is a prime example.

Fantastique’s Literary Heritage

Defined this way, fantastique literature contains many significant works in its canon. Identifying a few of the better-known titles includes:

Other eminent contributors to the genre include H.P. Lovecraft, Vladimir Nabokov, Richard Matheson, Steven King, and Clive Barker.

Why the Fantastique Designation Matters

On the Macro Level:

It matters because so many talented writers’ works can be identified as belonging within this particular subgenre. Their inclusion goes beyond literary pigeon-holing or reevaluation of individual author’s neglected works, however. Many of the works listed above achieved distinction before Tudorov consigned them into this particular genre. Rather, their inclusion reflects the authors’ appreciation and apprehension regarding the amazing, the phenomenal, and the absurd.

Authors ranging in temperament from Sartre to Lovecraft acknowledge the power of the supernatural yet remain hesitant regarding its actuality. As playwright John Van Druten laments in his play Bell, Book, and Candle, “There’s always a rational explanation for everything if you look for it.”

On the Micro (Personal) Level:

It matters because placing my recent series Escape the New Immortals within Todorov’s classification explains my career arc as an author. My first published novel, Penal Fires, was an initial stab at the psychological thriller, little more. My second, Metadata Murders, was also a thriller, but this time along technological lines. The main plot device–the Internet–revealed the promises and pitfalls of that recent invention. The crux of its storyline involved the preposterous, almost supernatural, potential for identify theft and murder via the dark Web.

Consequently, creating a narrative involving a conflict between a psychologist-turned- shaman and a band of psychic vampires from the collective unconscious doesn’t seem such a surprise, In retrospect, it seems a rational if excessive thematic development in my growth as a writer.

A Fantastique Summation

In Escape the New Immortals

My personal commitment to the Fantastiqu concept appears most strongly in the first two novels of my Escape the New Immortals series. In an otherwise ordinary and rational world, each of the protagonists encounters a supernatural entity in unconscious reality from which they must escape. Each of them, Victor, Miriam, and Todd at times doubt the veracity of that experience. Their individual story arcs reflect the internal conflict of coming terms and ultimatelly vanquishing those supernatural beings whose existence defies rational explanation. In short, their acceptance of supernatural reality ultimately enables them to vanquish their foes in the rational world.

From Five Books Transformed My Life

It is said the strongest believers in heaven and a deity are those who fought hardest against it. Saul of Tarsus before he became St. Paul comes to mind. Two examples from more recent literature appear as the top two in my most recent blog post, Marcel (Remembrance of Things Past) and Lawrence Darrell (The Razor’s Edge) seek something not of this world. For Marcel it is what’s often mislabeled as deja vu–the recreated sensory experience. His tasting of the madeleine cookie he remembered as a child provides the reader with a supernatural depiction of primitive time travel.

For Lawrence Darrell, the fantastique aids him in finding the meaning to man’s existence. He never finds the answers he seeks, but he always continues the search. His healing trick for his stressed-out friend involves no more than his trying to hold onto a coin. His inability to do so demonstrates that the supernatural power for healing our tormented souls lies not in the power of others but within ourselves.

Little from these examples is rational; none of it seems real or true. Yet these occurrences continue pervade ordinary reality every day, doubtful as that may seem. That is why they and my novels fall under the label of the fantastique.

What do you think? Give your opinion in the Leave a Reply section below.

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Five Books Transfomed My Life

The Problem and Criteria to Resolve It

It’s almost June–that summer time of year when authors, writers, and readers convene to discuss the intricacies of writing. At such events, attendees often ask which books influenced the guest authors the most. Asked another way: which books are their favorites? It seems a facile question, but a difficult one. How do you identify the most influential books when you’ve read so many? How do you whittle the influencers to a manageable number–say five book? Every author impacts your artistic sensibility in some way, big and small, positive or negative.

After mulling this over, it became clear there was no objective criterion to rate those books that influenced me. Gut instinct ruled my decisions instead. Rather than overthink it, the following five titles became those which first entered my mind. Like the five poems previously identified for last year’s Valentine’s Day, Here are the top five books ranked in revers order that influenced me as an author.

5. The Black Stallion by Walter Farley

This wasn’t the first novel I read as a kid. Farley’s The Island Stallion holds that distinction based on our local public librarian’s recommendation. But Farley’s depiction of the bond formed between a boy and a wild male horse while trapped on a desert island transfixed me with its exoticism and sense of adventure.

Subsequent volumes in both series fascinated me to the point of imitation. In fact, my first novel attempt was entitled Black Phanton. Unfortunately, it only remained an attempt. I never wrote the text, only designed the cover. The books gave me a lifelong fascination with the sport of kings and its lore, but I never owned a horse nor learned the practical aspects of caring for one. That experience provided my first lesson about writing, though: know your subject.

4. I, Robot by Isaac Asimov

1st ed. cover

After my debacle with the Black Stallion imitation, my reading tastes changed. This occurred during the time of Sputnik and Yuri Gagarin and Laika (first dog into space). Consequently, I became interested in all topics involving the heavens and supporting sciences. My reading tastes changed too. I read the novels and short stories of the many authors who appeared in the compendium called A Treasury of A Science Fiction. Thrilling stories by Heinlein, Van Vogt, Sturgeon, and Pohl were just a few of the writers inhabiting its pages.

Above them all stood Isaac Asimov whose collection of short stories chronicled the evollution of man’s relationship with the creation in his own image. Asimov’s stories were subtle; his ideas complex, yet told in a direct, never condescendingway that made the most complicated concepts accessible and understandable. This style he carried over into his nonfiction works as well. His work on the elements in the periodic table became a special favorite.

3. One, Two, Three . . . Infinity! by George Gamow

1, 2, 3 ...Infinity

By the time I was reading Asimov’s explanation of the elements, it seemed clear to me I was headed toward a scientific career of some kind. All of my high school classes were college-preparatory with as much a scientific emphasis as I could muster. Thus, it surprised me when my senior English teacher, Mrs. Greene, presented me with a copy of the above volume a week before my graduation.

One, Two, Three . . . Infinity! introduced me to the then novel concepts of the Moebius strip and Einstein’s space-time continuum. However, the content, did not surprise me so much as the fact that this flinty, sharp-tongued high school teacher, feared by many, should honor my graduation with a copy of one of her husband’s (local newspaper editor) favorite books. Perhaps she thought one day I might write one of my own. Certainly, I remembered her gift when I changed my college major from chemistry to English.

2. Remembrance of Things Past by Marcel Proust

In Search of Lost Time

Up to now, my choices follow each other in chronological order. But, at this point, I must skip ahead to my life in the army after graduating from college. Rocked by the cataclysmic social and personal unrest caused by my induction into military service during the vietnam War, I took refuge in reading novels, sometimes as many as four or five a week.

These books were more than mere escape, however. Reading them completed the education I never received in college. They taught me the value of the hook to lure the reader in, the pacing to keep him/her turning pages, and how to bring a story to its climax and suitable ending. This choice, however, did more than that. Reading it showed me how an author could bring to life a distant period in time and space as seen through the focal point of a young boy reliving the taste of a madeleine upon his tongue. It also taught me about love, obsession, and perversion–all motives never expounded upon in my college texts.

Honorable Mentions

Before naming my number one literary influence, it is the custom of such lists to mention items which didn’t make the cut. There are two in my case. The first is the Scrooge McDuck comic book character who appeared in a series first created by Carl Barks. Not only does he provide the financial means for his adventures (important groundwork for any story), but as a protagonist Scrooge provides insight into a nuber of myths and legends. One story in particular, Barks’ “The Seven Cities of Cibola” inspired movie directors George Lucas and Steven Spielburg’s film Raiders of the Lost Ark. A great endorsement indeed, though Barks’ story needs no such endorsement.

My second honorable mention belongs to the ouevre of Raymond Chandler, particularly his The Big Sleep. His sardonic take on the private eye tale through his avatar, Phiip Marlowe, is entertaining and insightful of 1930 and 1940s Los Angeles. My own authorial voice would never contain such smart-aleck delivery, but that didn’t stop me from reading Chandler’s entire output in one week.

1. The Razor’s Edge by William Somerset Maugham

Collier ed. from my uncle's library

This book most inflluenced me to write. Its protagonist, Larry Darrell, asks the same questions I’d been asking ever since my mid-teens. What is the meaning of life? Why are we here? And since we are, what should we do with our lives? Like the others cited above, it contains more exotic locales with a variety of intriguing, sometimes off-beat characters. It also contains its fair share of soul-searching. Darrow doesn’t achieve his goal, but unlike the protagonists of Sartre and Camus, he finds solace in striving toward that goal of self-knowledge and understanding. That message is what makes me return to it time and again–a mental reset as it were.

Denouement

There are my top five. You may not like their style or agree with the the philosophies contained in them. Discovered during my formative years, they come from a different era which draws further away with every passing year. However, the themes they address are timeless. The answers they seek may be out there. Or they may reside inside in each of us.

It’s up to each of us to continue the search and tell our own narratives about our philosophical expeditions. In the meantime, read. Read all you can this summer–and beyond. Maybe you, too, will find that book that sets you off on your first great adventure, imaginary or real. Reading one or all of my influences might help put you on that quest!

What are your favorite books?pu

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Five Tips for Power Panelists

One fantasy convention down and another to go (Multiverse in Atlanta, Oct. 20-22)! As another part of an informal series on authorship and writing hacks, here are five tips for power panelists that make panels work for them and their audiences.

1. Be Prepared

Five Tips for Power PanelistsThis one seems obvious, but involves more than mere familiarity with the subject. Too often, fantasy writers view a topic through their individual lens.  That can be illustrative, but such a narrow focus may not apply to all varieties of fantasy or science fiction. Power panelists realize the differences between writing low or high fantasy, for example, or young adult and middle-grade, are quite distinctive and engender differing perspectives on the nature and focus of writing fiction for their audiences.

How to address this? Acquire some familiarity with the work of your fellow panel members breeds respect and cooperation in your discussions. Cultivate some knowledge of your fellow panelists’ perspectives by checking out their website or emailing them for their opinions before the event.

BTW, being on time and staying on topic helps, too!

2. Consider Your Audience

Five Tips for Power PanelistsThis tip elaborates on what appears above. Just as writers slant their stories to the values, interests, and expectations of their readerships, power panelists direct their responses toward the topic at hand with their audience in mind. Does it consist primarily of writers or academics? Or is it composed primarily of readers and fantasy fans?

In most instances, it combines both. Therefore, power panelists keep their participation in the discussion on a level available to everyone. Don’t delve into fantasy trivia or writing esoterica unless the audience indicates they wish to pursue the topic more deeply. Most importantly, power panelists aren’t condescending to them or their fellow panelists.

3. Encourage Audience Participation

Five Tips for Power PanelistsFor some panel members, this tip may contradict the concept of a panel discussion, i.e. a discussion among the members of a panel. Regardless of that, some of the best discussions I’ve witnessed resulted from questions or observations contributed by the audience. If a topic is provocative enough in itself, or if the panel discussion of it is sufficiently free-flowing and involving, such discussion conduces a dialog between the panel and its listeners. Not only does such involvement measure a power panelist and a panel’s success as entertainers, it liberates creative ideas panel members may never have considered.

4. Set Limits to the Discussion

Five Tips for Power PanelistsThis point may be in the convention guidelines, but it bears repeating. Power panelists respect the ideas and beliefs of all participants, panelists and audience members alike. To facilitate that respect, the moderator should lay out the ground rules before the start of discussion. Most often, that means reigning in those individuals whose enthusiasm for a particular topic overwhelms their inhibitions and consideration for others.

One method to establish control: agree upon an absurb or nonthreatening safe word like “sandwich” at the beginning of the discussion.  tactfully subdues an overzealous panelist or audience member who overextends his or her say on the topic under discussion.

5. Keep Things Short and Simple

This last tip harkens back to the first. Kristen Arnold of “Panelist Do’s and Don’ts” recommends introducing yourself in two or three sentences. She advises to “Be ready to support your points with concrete examples and crisp, concise stories that humanize your message and drive it home.” Easier said than done, but striving for brevity this way enables power panelists to set the conversational tone and identifies themas someone whose contributions are worth a listen or writing them down!

Summing It Up

Serving on a panel or being a moderator can be a tricky thing. Power panelists know having a discussion with people they meet just before taking their seat at the podium can be nerve-wracking. Such unfamiliarity makes having a natural and free-flowing discussion difficult, much less informative or entertaining. However, following these five tips should make involvement in such discussions an enjoyable and rewarding experience.

What are some power tips you employ when you are a panel member? Have you witnessed or participated in some panels where these tips failed or backfired? Tell us in the Comments section below.

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Rule of Seven Hack for Authors

Rule of Seven in Marketing
Rule of Seven Hack for Authors to Reach Target Market

One of the new concepts discussed at the  2023 Imaginarium Convention this past July was how the Rule of Seven affects promoting author fiction. Originally coined by American movie moguls in the 1930s, the concept states that potential customers, i.e. theater-goers, must see or hear about a film at least seven times before commiting to watch it. While this rule-of-thumb may have worked back then, does it still hold true for marketing in the digital age? If so, how does it work for authors?

Then And Now

Drawing public attention to a new Ruitem or service was more difficult in the 1930s. Fewer advertising outlets existed, and promotional techniques were less sophisticated. Radio, newspapers, and magazines acted as the prime purveyors of information and promotion. Consequently, movie studios flooded the few media outlets available with theatrical movie previews and stories about the stars in those movies in magazines such as Star and the Hollywood Reporter.  Such activities still go on today with promotional budgets far beyond the cost of creating 1930s films devoted to alerting and (for the most expensive films) deluging the movie-going public with information about the latest cinematic releases.

Paradigm Shift
Rule of Seven Hack for Authors

However, today’s fiction-readers receive information about new and favorite writers from a firehose of media outlets. Advertising and promotions inundate them to such an extent that repeated exposures to the same message or brand may have a counter-productive effect. Research from the University of Sussex suggests that “being presented with the same message over and again could actually do more damage than good.” In short, people tune out.

An Antidote

Rule of Seven Remedy
Remedy–Rule of Seven Hack for Authors

Rather than continue to hammer the promotional message to an increasingly resistant buying public, the answer may lie in less repetition and more diversity. Results from that same study indicate repeating a strong promotional message may be counter-productive. As a result, the target audience becomes saturated with the message and “they gravitate toward novelty.”

But not just to anything new or different. People enjoy a blend of the new with the familiar. Repeated exposure to the new product or service remains key so long as it is interlaced with more customary concepts and ideas.  As the researchers concluded, “What appears to be key is variety.”

Importance of Branding

Of course, The Walt Disney Company (Disney) has millions of dollars to flood the media with their variety of products. Most authors, including myself, have little or none. Yet authors can take a page out of the Disney playbook and hone it to scale. Disney’s theme parks and merchandise still serve to promote its movies and cartoons, the bedrock of Disney’s various enterprises.

Branding to Sell Your Novels
Branding as Applied to Rule of Seven Hack for Authors

Authors and writers can do the same. They may not have the resources or exposure of the Disney Corporation, but even its founder started out with pen and paper and an idea from which he sought to tell stories. Fiction writers have their own ideas and imagination to draw upon. And unlike the writers and artists for Disney, they can intersperse the promotions for their books and stories with narratives of their own unique experiences–promotional branding in written form. In fact, such product promotions may be stronger on an individual level because they can take a more personal and familiar approach.

What It All Means

Promoting one’s fictional works in the information age needn’t be as daunting as it first appears. The Rule of Seven still applies. Yet applying that rule must ssume a different form. Due to the multitude of advertising outlets and competitors, authors, particularly fiction writers, must know their brand and the audience(s) to which their brand appeals. More important than appearing on a dozen social media platforms like Facebook or Tik-Tok, they must develop their brand. Why? Because their books are projections of who and what they are as artists. And knowing that, hacking deep inside themselves, they can project their ideas through personal interactions with readerships (and buyers) receptive to who they are and what they have to sell.

What do you think? Let us know in the Leave a Reply section below.

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AI Threatens Publishers & Writers

AI in Book PublishingArtificial Intelligence (AI) already affects writers and the publishing industry. However, the recent release of ChatGPT threatens authors’ livelihoods on a whole new level.  In a Publisher’s Weekly opinion piece, electronics publisher Thad McElroy calls the recent innovations in AI a “game changer.” He believes “every function in trade book publishing today can be automated with the help of generative AI.” And if this assertion is true, “the trade book publishing industry as we know it will soon be obsolete. We will need to move on.”

Death knells for the publishing industry have sounded before. Remember word processors, automated printing, and “Print Is Dead”?  McElroy does, and other writer/publishers seem to agree with him. For example, Dave Chesson at Kindlepreneur gmailed that the cost for Amazon’s print-on-demand service is schedeuled  to increase on June 20th. This decision affects writers and publishers alike. If the industry’s need to move  on is real, the question becomes “To What?”

Alternatives

To thwart the apocalypse before it happens, McElroy offers a nuanced analysis of the problem with a pragmatic solution. Since AI promises to take over all the production aspects of publishing, it’s best for everyone involved to accept that fact and discover the opportunities ChatGPT and its kindred programs provide. In terms of the book-production process, for example, McElroy equates the current situation to 1988 when publishers linked the MacIntosh computer to the Linotype printer.  Dramatic increases in output resulted in exchange for increased editorial errors and mediocre page design. But readers accepted this “good enough” product quality in exchange for easier access and wider availability of resources.

Acceptable Quid Pro Quo?

Whether this exchange was equitable remains debatable. For his part, McElroy Definition of Quid Pro Quo itemizes the opportunities AI offers in terms of acquisitiion, production, and marketing. In his view, AI could depose Amazon, the over-charging, 800-pound gorilla in the publishing industry. While independent publishers like him might welcome the overthrow of their competition, individual entrepreneurs, writers, and artists could find themselves shoved further down down the publicity and marketing chain.  McElroy’s  analysis is astute, but relies heavily on his approach of book publishing being an information-dispensing industry.

Making a Choice

For authors, particularly fiction writers, the question boils down to what inspired them to become writers in the first place? Was their decision based on the promise of fame and fortune? Or because they needed to express themselves, to write something no one had ever said or thought before? Was their choice inspired by images carefully crafted on the page or by graphs and equations neatly presented on an I-pad?

George Bernard Shaw in 1911As individuals, people respond to differIent stimuli differently. George Bernard Shaw once claimed “It is the mark of the truly intelligent person to be moved by statistics.” Most of us, however, are not so swayed nor sympathetic to their impact. To impel action, people need the emotional stimulus that well-honed words on the page provide. Most of us, writers and readers included, remember a favorite book or story that stimulated our imaginations, one that prompted us to write something as good, as beautiful, as true.

A Personal Note

For me, that story was Walter Farley‘s The Black Stallion. In its honor I created a coverThe Black Stallion binder for my proposed work, Black Phantom. The binder remained empty for years, however, because I had no access to horses of any kind. Finally, when the chance to ride one did happen, I clung to the saddle horn for all I was worth while the horse galloped back to its stall for a fresh bucket of oats. However, the action, the adventure, the thrill of that incident stayed with me. Like Farley’s narrative of a boy’s enduring love for his horse, these qualities inspired the path I’ve chosen these many decades later.

This is not to say others of a more analytical bent cannot be inspired by facts and figures derived out of the multiverse of mental calculations. One of my favorite scientific authors, Carl Sagan, was at home in the professional realms of astrophysics and education. His respect for science and logical thinking came through in every book he wrote. But, his  passion did, too. In his most popular book, Cosmos, Sagan’s awe for the universe and its mysteries flies off every page, stimulating and resonating his audience with its own.

The Decision

Pros & Cons of a DecisionFor these individuals and the people inspired by them, “good enough” is not acceptable.  Publishing information remains limited to the quality and accuracy of its sources. The 1960s adage, “Garbage In, Garbage Out” (GIGO), still holds true. Currently, Chatbot writing, no matter how proficient or well-supported, cannot be as affective as human writing because it has no soul, no sense of self to be inspired by directed words on a page. To be certain, it can define the word “metaphor” and provide examples of one, but it can’t deliver one that moves human readers because it has no feelings of its own to be moved.

The reading public already drowns at the firehose of information provided by the predecessors of artificial intelligence. Do they wish to be inundated by the information tsunami that ChatGPT threatens to unleash? Probably not. Yet, the answers to such questions remain to be answered. As participants in the publishing world, everyone must decide which choice will insure our survival. As with so many other issues in this uncertain world, make your best informed decision, then wait and see.

What do you think? Put your response in the Leave a Reply section below.

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How to Make Father Christmas into Santa Claus

Father & Mrs. Xmas

Like other cultural icons, Santa Claus wasn’t always the personification of Christmas familiar to most Americans. His genesis as a gift-giving philanthropist evolved out of the political wars that involved his British cultural predecessor, Father Christmas, and documented in their literature.

Medieval Times

During the English High Middle Ages, people combined the celebration of Christ’s birth with their pre-Christian midwinter traditions. What these traditions might have been “we have no details at all” accoring to historian Ronald Hutton. The  symbol of the traditions came later and reflected the changing social and political turmoil of the times.

First Embodiment

In the 15th and 16th centuries the concept of Christmas became associated with merry-making and drinking. In a carol written by Richard Smart, Rector of Plymtree, a line refers to “Sir Christmas” who announces Christ’s birth and encourages parishioners to :”Make good cheer and be right merry, / And sing with us now joyfully: Nowell, nowell.”

Around the same time a gentleman named John Goodman helped the populace of Norwich celebrate the holiday by riding a horse wrapped in tin faoil in a pageant as Father Christmas.

Development

From the humble beginnings cited above, certain aspects of this Christmas personification began to take shape, particularly his chaotic association with the Lord of Misrule. Much like the Merry Pranksters of the 1960s, this association fostered his confrontations with the social and polifical establishment. Some highlights from the literature of the period reflect this, such as:

  • In Thomas Nashe‘s play, Summer’s Last Will and Testament, a miserly Christmas character refuses to maintain his traditional role of keeping the feast.
  • Playwright Ben Jonson in his Christmas, A Masque depicts a sartorially outdated “Old Christmas” who protests the attempts to exclude him from the holiday celebrations in the Protestant church
  • The Puritans abolishment of the celebration of Christmas and other festivals for eight years prompted supporters of the royalists cause to celebrate Father Christmas as a symbol of “the good old days’ of feasting and good cheer.,”
  • The reestablishment of the monarchy prompted diearist Samuel Pepys to celebrate the return of Father Christmas in his ballad “Old Christmas Returnd.”

Deemphasis and Revival

Interest in the character dwindled after the restoration of the monarch for over a century until Scots poets, Sir Walter Scott, revived it in his poem “Marmarion” by tying the figure to his phrase “merry England” as part of Englans’s golden age from years past. Thomas Hervey embellished this association and Charles Dickens cemented Father Christmas’ stature in his book A Christmas Carol.

As Gift-Giver

As peoples’ roles within the family and society solidified during the Victorian era, Father Christmas’ role changed, too.  Cross-fertilization from American magazines helped transform Father Christmas from boozy celebrant to children’s gift-giver. With his role change his costume changed as well. A red stocking cap and trimmed, snow-white beard replaced the dingy green and unkempt party animal of yesteryear.

Total Transformation

The Coco-Cola Company’s Christmas advertising campaign completed Father Christamas’ morphing into Santa Claus. He became a jolly entrepreneur whose marketing strategy involved an isolated and secret monopolization of gift-giving magically accomplished during one frigid night in December.  Although Father Christmas remains a name more associated with British than American celebrations of the event, the British name is considered to have a socially superior cachet and therefore is preferred by certain advertisers.

What name do you prefer: Father Christmas or Santa Claus? Let us know in the Leave a Reply section below.

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Beware of Readers Who Want Only Free Books

Bounty of the Harvest

Thanksgiving is a time for celebrating the harvest. The resulting bounty in my case has been small since the publication of my new novel, Mission: Soul Sacrifice, occurred at mid-year. Consequently, opportunities to sell copies of it at art festivals and book fairs have been minimal (blame Covid-19 and price inflattion) or nonexistetn other than as free books.

Print Is Not Dead

For many years such downticks in the economic and social well-being of the country didn’t matter. Non-fiction books and novels still remained solid present choices and reliable stocking-stuffers for the holidays. And the demise of printed communication Marshall McLuhan predicted didn’t happen. Sixty years later, the number of books published each year continues to skyrocket. Their mutant forms–audio, digital, e-reader, etc.–underscore this assertion.

Supply and Demand

That is a major part of the sales problem, however. There is too much product. Even before digital and audio books made inroads into the paperback share of the book market, independent and traditionally-published authors gave away the sweat and blood of their labors. At my last major book fair, for example, readers strolled up and down the aisles toting a shopping bag (sometimes, two) filled to the brim with free copies.

Similar to the citizens of Venezuala who luxuriated in the unearned cash bestowed by the country’s vast oil reserves, American readers are used to free handouts at book fairs and writers conferences. Why pay the nominal asking price when a Kindle Prime subscription offers free copies from many notable and less-known authors? Meanwhile, the books of authors who don’t participate in the Kindle program are readily available (for free) at the next local book fair or writers conference.

Pump-Priming

What to do? For many authors the solution appears to follow recent political trends. Double down. Prime the pump. By aping the deficit-spending philosophies of the Franklin Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan presidencies, authors hope to stimulate reader purchases by advertising through reading program promoters such as Goodreads and BookBub. By giving away a small number of their books, writers hope to attract a percentage among those who didn’t win the chance of satisfying their desire by purchasing their books instead.

Free Books and Marketing

Will such ploys work? The jury’s still out. Past giveaways prompt anywhere from two to ten per cent of overall participants to purchase copies of the titles in which they had entered. In some instances, that led to hundreds of purchases by readers otherwise disinclined to do so. One caveat remains, however. The success of previous presidentail pump-priming efforts occurred during a depression and a recession. These are instances where not enough goods enter the marketplace. Book publishing, on the other hand, currently experiences a surfeit of product. Too many books chase smaller, fractionated readerships. As a result, readers can be very selective in their choices which perpetuates and institutionalizes giveaways in the marketing cycle.

What Happens Next?

On a personal level, the reading public’s opinion regarding the bounty of my writing labors comes to a head after Thanksgiving. On December 1st, the winners of my Goodreads giveaway will be chosen and announced. After sending out their copies, the names and addresses of those who purchased the book will be sent to my email address and I’ll fulfill whatever orders are sent my way. Whether that’s one, a couple, a dozen, or hundreds, I’ll let you know in my blog posts and upcoming issues of my newsletter.

What do you think will happen? Let me know in the Leave a Reply section below.

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Powerful Black Cats: Foes and Familiars Found in Fiction

Black cats have a dubious reputation associated with Halloween. They have been regarded as evil omens of sorcery for centuries, particularly as familiars and shape-shifting embodiments of witches.

Popular Fiction

Holding such a dubious distinction, it’s no wonder black cats have inspired and/or been the center of popular fiction during that time. We’re all familiar with the cartoon treachery of Sylvester or the magic adventures of Felix the Cat. Some of us may even recall Krazy Kat‘s unrequited comic book love for Ignatz, the brick-throwing mouse as well (Tom & Jerry fans take note).

Children and Young Adult Fiction

Black Cat Literature

But black cats appear in literary fiction, too. The covers shown alongside depict nine feline characters from children’s or young adult fiction chosen by Arapahoe Libraries. Dr. Seuss/Theordore Geisel‘s Cat in the Hat and the black cat in Coraline are perhaps the most famous, but Thackery Binx who appears in Hocus Pocus, and Salem Saberhagen, a former warlock who appears in Sabrina, the Teenage Witch have their followers, too.

Literary Fiction

Selene & Friend

On the adult side, Wikipedia identifies no less than six black cats which serve as “notable feline characters from notable literary works of fiction.” These include:

Alonzo — T. S. Eliot — Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats;

Behemoth — Mikhail Bulgakov — The Master and the Margharita;

Black Tom — H.P. Lovecraft — The Rats in the Walls;

Kitsa — Lynn Reed Banks — The Indian in the Cupboard;

Kitty — Nick Bruel — Bad Kitty; Pluto — Edgar Allan Poe

Pluto — Edgar Allan Poe — The Black Cat

A not-insignificant list.

Sylvester

So, this Halloween (or your next Read to Each Other night) while you’re waiting for the next band of the trick-or-treaters to knock on your door, try reading one of these stories to pass the time. Who knows? One of these shape-shifting felines might just creep into your imagination and stay there!

Do you have any other stories or suggestions to add? Let me know in the Leave a Reply section below.