Mindware Issues on Smashwords.

Mindware Issues is a short story I wrote near the end of last year. After a little adjustment and putting together a simple cover image...

... I sent it off. Now it's up there on Smashwords, selling for $1. And Trafficked! has already sold... wait for it... TWO copies! That means I've broken even on my expenses. Whoopee! I bought the lizard picture for the front cover for $2.30.

You can find Mindware Issues  here . The site allows you to sample the first 30%. See the last post on this blog for advice about reading ebooks on your PC.

If anyone would like to try for a free copy of Mindware Issues or Trafficked! then you could, ummm, let's see, maybe offer to write an honest review of one. I can send you a coupon code so you can download the free copy. Probably Phil you shouldn't be the reviewer... family and all that. But I can send you the coupon code anyway, if you'd like!

Trafficked!

After a few days of preparation, I got the story published on Smashwords as an ebook. Here's the link..TRAFFICKED!.

There's the obvious theme of human trafficking, which is just one of those many evils that should never be. But it was fun to write, anyway! And it's cheap!

It's not released into Smashwords' Premium Catalog yet, so it's only available on the Smashwords site at the above link.

To read ebooks without a seperate ebook reader device, you can:

1) download the ebook as a pdf file and read it on your computer
2) download the free Kindle viewer software from Amazon here:

- and then you can read ebooks on your PC (must be one somewhere for Macs too...) I have the Kindle viewer and it works very well on my laptop.

Updated Cover ART

Here you go... the finished product. The story should be on Smashwords shortly. Their process for accepting new ebooks takes a week or more, so don't hold your breath.

SmashWords!

Meanwhile, I've been working hard on another way to get published: ebooks. There's an amazingly useful resource called Smashwords- a site that allows you to publish ebooks basically for free - they take a reasonable slice of the sales, a much smaller % than traditional publishers.

To take a look, go to HERE.
I hope to have a few short stories up there soon. Today I'm trying to finish off my first front-cover-art, patched together from some free images I found on the web! Not exactly Class-A work, but I'm learning to use Paint.Net, much more complex than the little Paint program that comes with Windows. Here's a quick preview of it. Don't laugh! You don't know how amazingly well it fits the story!

STOP THE TRAFFIK!

 This is an article I wrote for our local newspaper. Their paper that day was full up with other great things, so this never made it to the light of day. Here it is, just a few months old but still very much up-to-date.

It was a chilly Friday night at the Italian Centre in Thunder Bay, so the meatballs and spaghetti on the menu were very comforting. However, the guest speaker, Andy Matheson of Oasis, spoke on a very disturbing subject.

The dinner was presented by Nu-Vision Ministry of Canada and First Baptist Church, as part of a weekend entitled 'Til We All Have Voices: Poverty, Complicity and Advocacy in An Unjust World'.

Andy told me with a grin that he and his wife Joan had travelled from the UK to tell stories. Although he described human suffering, he did so cheerfully, focussing on the people helped by Oasis, the charitable trust of which he is International Director. His aim in coming was to get us to try on the shoes of the poor.

He described living in Mumbai, India, years ago and trying to help street kids. He and his wife were gripped by the wrongness of it all, and opened a business where street kids learned a trade while spending time with people who cared for them. The first step kids had to take was learning to trust an adult.

Andy stresses that poverty is not primarily an economic situation, but a breakdown of relationships and a lack of life choices. Most of us can obtain healthcare, job training and access to a law court. Among the poorest people are those traffiked into modern forms of slavery, who have none of these freedoms.

In a video he showed Indian staff of Oasis in Bangalore, rescuing girls in their early teens who had been sold, often by their own relatives, into the huge prostitution industry in Mumbai.

Bringing it much closer to home, he then exposed the ugly underbelly of the chocolate industry. A little under half of our chocolate comes from plantations in Ivory Coast, often tended by traffiked people. They are not free to leave, not paid, but are physically abused if they resist. Many are in their early teens and have been forced away from their family with false promises. Oasis has engaged with the management of the largest chocolate producers, and carried out awareness campaigns and lobbying. As a result, Mars and Cadbury have agreed to market Fairtrade chocolate brands. Nestlé is still discussing the idea. Hersheys has apparently not shown interest.

Andy showed how anyone can help to build a world where everyone is treated fairly. It includes advocating for the poor, and what we choose to buy, but it's much more about building relationships with those nearby who have fewer choices than us. As a Christian, Andy believes that every person is created in God's likeness and therefore has great worth. Find Andy's book, 'In His Image: Understanding and Embracing the Poor', at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle formats. Oasis contributes to the 'Stop The Traffik' campaign, and both have their own websites.

'The Calling' gets its own blog!

A couple of posts back, I mentioned a novel that I've written. I'm in the final stages of preparing it for publication, so I've launched its own blog called The Calling. You can find it from my profile and here's a direct link: THE CALLING. I'll keep it updated as the book makes progress towards getting printed.


Since I wrote the post on the story, I've added a couple of layers to it. To me it seemed like there was only one main character, so I upgraded one of the minor characters - a girl - so she got sucked into the action and teams up with Valin. They both have lessons to learn about themselves, and I've worked on sharpening that theme so that it comes through loud and clear.


In order to send the story to a publisher I've had to write a synopsis. This is what publishers like. If they haven't requested the whole book, then I send a query letter - to sell it to them - and, along with the first few chapters, a synopsis of the story. Imagine compressing 57,000 words into  one or two pages of double-spaced text, bringing out the main themes of the plot and the development of the main characters. And it has to be in a way that grabs the attention of a busy publisher who has maybe a dozen or more similar manuscripts to read that day. Why should he publish mine? What makes it special? If you've ever thought of writing a book for publication, it's a challenge. There should be many books in your local library to guide you through the necessary steps. Get in touch if you are a total beginner and would like some tips.


Now it's back to work for me...

Was that winter?

A quick update on Canadian winter for those of you living in another country (or in BC, where you mostly just get rain, right? ;-) ) It was certainly a mild one, but a good first winter as a family.

Highlights:

• sledding, or sliding, whatever you call it, with some Saudi friends. They loved it! Said they're more used to sliding down sand dunes in 4x4s!
• hot chocolate after cross-country skiing
• saying 'It's warm today' when it's -10C or above... makes a change from -20.
• getting lost while skiing on a frozen lake with my wife, coming back the 'scenic route'
• snowball fights with our sons - this was their first white winter
• snow shoveling - it's good exercise and about the only way I meet the neighbours!
• skating along the river in Winnipeg (see first pic below)
• day trips to camp. (second pic) Undisturbed snow and lots of animal tracks. Walking on the lake ice with international students and seeing them get nervous at the ice groaning

Lowlights:
Now we're getting into the big thaw already, and the streets are filling up with slush and melted snow;
meltwater from the roof drips onto the drive and freezes at night

Thought control, 'menvring', and a small alien named Zewip!

The above topics play a role in a story I've written for 8-12 year-olds. It's almost finished. So if you were wondering if I'd actually been hibernating for the past few months, now you know.

The story started off as a tale I could tell our two boys at bedtime. Gradually I realised there was too much action and suspense to relax them before sleep, but I've read them the first few chapters in the daytime. Now it's finished bar a bit of last-minute improvement and fine-tuning, and I am going to get it published (do you hear that note of quiet determination?). Do you have a child in that age bracket who'd like to read it now and give me some feedback before the end of February? I can send you the story as an attachment. Here's what could appear on the back cover:

THE CALLING OF VALIN DEROJAN: The galaxy is torn apart in a struggle between the outnumbered forces of freedom and the dark legions of death. It's not the first time that barbaric Thagul raiders have screamed down out of the sky of Elmarune and attacked the nomadic tribes who live along the desert's edge. But this time they take hostage the man who saved young Valin Derojan's life, and he is faced with a stark choice: take on the raiders single-handedly to save his friend, or live the rest of his life in shame. In the adrenaline-rush struggle that follows, he realises that the freedom fighters are calling him into this galaxy-wide conflict. Is he willing to lay his life on the line for his friend?

I found a few pics like this on the internet for private use when I read it to my boys.

The story idea started, I think, as I watched our eldest son gobbling up book after book in the series of young-adult Star Wars chapter books. Yes, whatever you might think about SW as science fiction, when talking about kids and SF you at some point have to deal with the elephant in the room, so let's get to it. I think the Star Wars big-picture story has a lot going for it in some ways, in that it deals with the father-son relationship and gives the main characters a quest, throwing them into a struggle between good and evil. Apparently George Lucas, the original creator of Star Wars, said that he added the Force as a way of dealing with 'God' in his invented universe. Here's a quote from a webpage by Terry Mattingly at http://www.leaderu.com/humanities/mattingly.html :

The trilogy's creator was well aware that his work invaded turf traditionally reserved for parents, priests and preachers. George Lucas wrote "Star Wars" shortly after the cultural revolution of the '60s. He sensed a spiritual void...

The impact of Lucas' work has led some researchers to speak in terms of a "Star Wars" generation. A modern preacher who wants to discuss self sacrifice will be understood by more people if he refers to the death of Jedi knight Obi Wan Kenobi, rather than that of St. Stephen. 

The major issue I have always felt with the Force is that it's impersonal; it's almost like magic. The Force gives the Jedi control over matter and makes them stronger; the Holy Spirit waits for us to submit to God's way and answers our prayers as He sees fit. As Christians we are given authority, but only within the parameters of God's loving, pure rule.

Fair enough - Star Wars is only a story. It's not meant to portray reality, but young people growing up in a spiritual void grasp hold of these things and feed on them. It's a very compelling story for children. There's an order of warriors who have to keep themselves from darkness in order to battle the evil around them. I can identify with that as a Christian. It's what motivates me to live and do what I do. But sorry, the Force of Star Wars is in many ways closer to Buddhism than the Gospel.

Okay, this has been discussed many times over since Luke Skywalker first watched the sunset as he stood on Tatooine's dusty soil in the '70s. Is there any chance for another story to come along into the arena of SF adventure? Once I'd written most of this new story I realised I'd come close to plagiarism in some ways, or at least to creating a story that might remind the reader of the universe of X-wings and Yoda and Tusken Raiders. But that's almost inevitable, with such an all-pervading 'empire' of audio-visual thrills, games and toys filling many kids' lives.

There's plenty in The Calling of Valin Derojan that's charting a different course from Star Wars while tackling similar themes. The idea of enlisting in the battle between right and wrong requires a dash of reality: it's made up of the little decisions we make, the sort of people we have decided to be. So, can Valin control his thoughts enough, and handle strong emotions? This comes into the big SW too, but The Calling handles it differently, I think. Rather than having to tune in to the Force within, Valin moves towards loyalty to a person. Rather than just stilling his thoughts or emptying his mind, he has to deal with issues that caused his conflicting thoughts and this will eventually mean he has to die to his self-centred ways.

And instead of having the apprentice hero emerging from a broken family background, I wanted to show how things could be - not a perfect family, but my Valin knows his father, admires him, and has grown up within a solid framework of honour and hard work. But he still faces some serious issues. There are enough stories showing how lives can go so very wrong... how about one showing how it should be?

Anyway, that's enough of that. Writing all this out has helped me think through what the story is aiming at, and I need to go and edit it some more. So if you have a child in the (roughly) 8-12 age range who likes spaceships and adventures on other planets, let me know.

Story: Captive Guest MkII

Hi! Here's a story I wrote in June. It started as an entry for the Polar Expressions book, Inkblots, and was published recently along with over 200 other short stories (and I mean short - the word limit was 750, so that's seriously compressed narrative). Here I've edited and filled it out a bit.

And yes, it's based loosely on real life - the place, vegetation and culture is authentic, and we have met a Yemeni man who went through this experience. My wife and I hiked along that trail - it's an amzing place. But I threw the maple leaf in there for free.

PS I'm working on another SF short, but it insists it wants to be a novella! Watch this space for an update on that.