Elemental Conflict release day!

First seen on the Space Trash blog.

There's a question I like to ask other authors, and it's 'Would you live in the world you've created?' A lot of people - more than I expected, if I'm honest - say 'No way, José.'

Being contrary by nature, I absolutely would live in the world I've created. Admittedly, I might not live very long in it.

It's finally release day for Elemental Conflict, and I'm a little bit mindblown. Exhausted, happy, and staring at a row of four books attached to my name, which feels distinctly surreal.

Writing is my daily dose of escapism, and my sci-fi world is where I go when I day-dream. it's something I enjoy enough to still do after a long day in a stressful job and an hour or so stuck in commute hell. I may not work out, I may not stop long enough to cook healthily, but most days I'll make at least some time to write.

So release day is always a moment of combined 'Huh. Did I do that?' and 'Damn, it's over...' That latter sentiment is what always founders my good intentions to go and actually tell people that I released a new book - as soon as I switch on my computer, I get promptly shanghaied into starting the next book.

So, before I go and write more (yes, it already happened) of the next in the series...go and make a starving, exhausted author very happy and check out Elemental Conflict. It's up on pretty much every major book e-tailer for your reading pleasure ;)

• Amazon
• Barnes&Noble paperback
• Smashwords
• iTunes
• Kobo
• Google Books

Chapter Quotes

First seen on the Space Trash Blog.

Why add chapter quotes? Where do you get your chapter quotes from? Aren't chapter quotes hell to format?

 

Me, personally, I enjoy chapter quotes. Dorothy Dunnett, Seanan McGuire, and of course Frank Herbert are all awesome examples. If you've never read any of these authors, don't tell me because I will get very judgy.

"Facts are a commonly accepted interpretation. Truth is a commonly argued fiction." A Planet's Philsophy, Ankara Zaneth (From book 8...yes, I'm way ahead of myself.)

They're an insight into the world backdrop, a good laugh, or a context-setter, depending on what the author is doing with them and with their book. I put them in because, well, I'm a pure pantser. I don't outline. I generally have no idea what my characters are likely to do once I've dropped them into a scene. I find out when I write it down. As you can imagine, therefore, I usually end up writing my chapter quotes well after the fact. They're actually help me in the editing stage, because they act as a kind of focus mechanism for me when I'm editing a chapter. I can stare at the chapter quote for a bit when I get stuck, remember the awesome thing I was trying to do in that chapter, and return to hacking and slashing motivated and refocused. (Hah.) At least, that's how it sometimes works.

"Modesty is like arsenic: safe only in small doses." Sayings of the Wise, Olar Fantoml

As I kind of gave away in the last bit, I don't get my chapter quotes from anywhere. I make them all up. My father, who had very serious tastes in most of his reading, and considered sci-fi to be an extreme form of escapism, never actually read any of my books - but he would steal them from my mother when she was reading them, and he would read my chapter quotes. I still regret that I never really asked him why, because I think the answer would have been interesting.

"Avoidance requires continuous effort. Confrontation merely requires standing still." ~ Universal Truths, Jahira Suran

And yes, sometimes, depending on the platform, chapter quotes can indeed be hell to format. Kobo, for example, thinks my chapter quotes are a whole separate page unless I spend hours tickling it with an ostrich feather while immersing it in chocolate. (Kidding. I had to get much kinkier than that.)

"Training is not a substitute for experience; it is merely easier to survive." Training of a Cortiian, Nadhiri Longar (Yeah, Book 8 again...working on it.)

As to what my chapter quotes are supposed to achieve other than providing a focal point for my edits - I mostly leave that up to the reader. If they're something that you just skip on your way to the main events, no worries. If they make you grin, or start an interesting train of thought, then I'm happy. I frankly suspect most of mine actually come from Khyria's choices of reading matter. Most of them are downright cynical and sound like the kinds of things she'd remember.

Writing Myths that need slaying

First seen on the Space Trash Blog.

Writing Myths that need slaying

I must write something other people will like and approve of.

No. A thousand times no. As Oscar Wilde put it “You can always judge a man by the quality of his enemies.” Write your truth. If it pleases everyone, chances are high you’re doing something wrong. Offend people. Make them think. Challenge their beliefs. Challenge your own. The world is too full of people tiptoeing carefully through their existences without ever standing up for themselves or what they believe in. If everyone is comfortable with your words, you’re using the wrong ones.

I must write at a level everyone will understand.

Don’t insult the intelligence of your readers. Don’t be complicit in the dumbing-down of society. Write to the level that your book demands and your characters dictate. If you have a story able to reach out and grab your readers by the balls, they will find themselves a dictionary if they have to. Don’t lessen your work or yourself to please the masses - because often the ‘m’ is silent.

I must write something that will sell.

Why? Are there writers who seriously go in expecting to get rich from their work? Write what pleases you, because the trending genre this month will have blown away with the autumn leaves next month. Write what pleases you, because forcing yourself

to write what everyone else does will be a brutal exercise in boredom. If no one else is ever to read your magnum opus, you had best make certain it enthralls you. Be original. Be yourself. No one else can be.

Writing is a slog, a chore. Writing is like giving yourself homework every night for the rest of your life.

Writing is an adventure. Every time you pick up a pen, sit at a keyboard, you create a world that only you can; live for a while with the only people you’re willing to invite inside your head. Writing is an addiction and a cure. Writing is an antidote to the tedium of life that was the same today as it was yesterday, as it will be tomorrow. Writing should make your heart beat faster and the hair stand up on the back of your neck. Writing should be what gets you through the things you 'have' to do; the thing that wakes you up in the night with the next scene more alive in your head than the walls around you.

Character Interview: Anst an Nabat

First seen on the Space Trash Blog.

A Cortiian and an author sit on the side of a large fountain... (not the start of a bad joke)

J C Steel: Nice touch of paranoia.

Anst an Nabat: It's a nice fountain. Care to tell me why I'm here?

JCS: I take it Khyria delegated.

AAN: She mentioned something about this being an assignment I should be able to handle alone.

JCS: Ouch. One unarmed human asking questions. Nice burn. I told her the people who read our stories like sound-bites. Interviews. You're who turned up.

AAN: ...Interviews. Not that I don't enjoy your company, but what am I going to tell you that isn't already in one of the books? I've lost count of how many indiscreet confessions you must be privy to by now.

JCS: It's a thing. Not a thing I really understand, but what I understand about book marketing could go on the back of a postage stamp and leave lots of room. Try this one: what does Cantara rank mean, in the Cortii?

AAN: Seriously? A Cantara commands five riders, or a Canta. They report directly to the Cortiora when the whole Cortia is present, or operate independently when necessary.

JCS: And the Cortiora and Cortertia technically also command Cantai of their own, right? Any special roles within that structure?

AAN: Cortiora holds overall command. Cortertia is second in command, and traditionally responsible for information-gathering. It's not a hard and fast rule. Third Cantara mostly takes responsibility for standard training and evaluations. Fourth Cantara tends to be the social one - generally something like this would be a Fourth Cantara's problem. Fifth Cantara is flexible. Often mission requisitions, supplies, and stray bureaucracy.

JCS: What's the oddest thing about Earth, to you, Anst?

AAN: Do you want the list alphabetically? ... I assume you don't mean the things it has in common with almost every other human-governed world I've seen. Probably the levels of environmental damage. Even the most over-populated Central Worlds would be surprised by the scale.

JCS: So you'd be even more surprised to hear that there's a sizeable amount of the population that prefers to believe that man-made environmental damage is a myth.

AAN: Actually, denial is common human trait, so no, not particularly.

JCS: Favourite Earth food to eat?

AAN: Roquefort cheese. It'd be considered a biological hazard on more advanced worlds, so I can honestly say it's got a unique taste.

JCS: ...could you have picked something a little harder to spell? Not a question. Can you tell me something about your name?

AAN: It was computer-assigned when I was recruited, based on my ID code. It sounds Kihali, but Hejj'in's a big swathe of space.

JCS: Any plans to go?

AAN: To Hejj'in? It's a long way from FPA space. I'm more curious about Atari, if I were planning to spend a lot of a leave on a space liner.

JCS: Why Atari?

AAN: It's not FPA space, there are some interesting stories about Atari worlds, I haven't been there yet - pick one.

JCS: Favourite thing to do in your free time?

AAN: Be transported halfway across the galaxy for a chat about cheese.

JCS: ...arsehole. Anything else?

AAN: I enjoy riding. Horses tend to be undemanding company.

JCS: Anyone taking bets yet on when or if someone's going to make first move for an official First Contact on Earth?

AAN: I'm sure they are, but anyone with a standard lifespan isn't likely to be around to collect. The Nasdari and the FPA are unusually unanimous on letting someone else step in on this planet.

JCS: What are the main concerns for an alien government?

AAN: There's a list. Geo-political instability, if I had to guess, would be near the top. You've got a lot of little countries, and no real single place where a First Contact team could set down without being shot at, or where negotiations could begin without offending some other minor government. The shooting wouldn't worry the Nasdari, but stopping it would take time and credits with no real return on investment in sight.

JCS: Right. Is anyone else likely to step in?

AAN: Not that we know of, but the universe is a big place. The more likely alternate scenario is that you bomb yourselves out of existence and both the FPA and the Nasdari blow thrusters trying to stake a claim first.

JCS: Hah. Yeah, that scenario is amassing more and more voters. What fact about the Cortii do you think would surprise most humans?

AAN: ...sometimes I can go minutes at a time without planning how to kill them.

JCS: Funny. Try this one: what do you think about the way your character is written in the series?

AAN: I'm really not that narcissistic. You probably write me as more patient than I actually am.

JCS: OK, poor choice of question. What do you think of how the Cortii in general are written?

AAN: Given how very few facts we can let you actually publish, I'd say you've captured it with a certain nasty accuracy.

JCS: What do you think of writing, as an art form?

AAN: It's not one I'm very familiar with. If anything I do ends up written down, it tends to be reports. Cortiians in general tend towards more physical art forms, if they practice one at all. I'm getting to the point where I can appreciate what you do, but reading as a pastime isn't something I'd be likely to indulge in on Base.

JCS: Speaking of, I'm not too sure on interview protocol, but standard North American attention span is currently rated at about 6 seconds, so we'd better wrap this up.

Cortiian Word of the week: Akrushkar

First seen on the Space Trash Blog.

Akrushkar, pl. akrushkari

The akrushkari come up a lot in the books based on the Cortiian Base. They're the Councils' enforcers, bodyguards, and most of the rank and file of the Cortii know almost nothing about them beyond their function. Think of them as military police with a tendency to shoot first and ask questions never.

The word comes from old Cortiian, based on krushkar, or slave - one without free will. You'll see the 'a' prefix in a lot of Cortiian words as well, like 'asra', 'as’sri’atan’si' - it's a submission prefix, an acquiescence.

So essentially 'akrushkar' means a slave obedient to orders. In this case, to the Councils that command the Cortii, who make a lot of despots look like underachievers. Because an akrushkar acts under the direct orders of the Councils, or, under a very limited set of circumstances, a Cortiora, they're essentially untouchable - raising a hand to an akrushkar is defying the Councils, and the fact that their personal bodyguards are called slaves should give you an idea of the Councils' views on disobedience.

To understand the akrushkari a little better, let's take a side-trip and examine the Councils for moment. Two levels to this structure: Inner Council, all five of them, and Outer Council, traditionally twenty. Outer Council numbers, unlike Inner, can vary, although it's rare. You'll note the Cortiian preference for fives running right through the command structure.

If you're on the ball, you'll already have realised that new Council members, or magaii, must come from somewhere. The Councils recruit from the top units on their Bases; Cortii who've reached Blue rank or higher, and the Councils are only open, by invitation, to Cortiorai.

So if a Cortiora accepts a place on the Outer Council, what happens to their command? There are a lot of rumours on Cortiian Bases, but the information isn't made common knowledge, and new appointments to Council happen so rarely that most Cortiians simply don't know.

However, the answer is simple and very practical: the Councils can't risk having high-calibre mercenaries roaming around loose with a powerful link to a magai.

Some are offered the honour of a place among the akrushkari, and undergo intense telepathic conditioning as well as memory blocks. Others end up as fodder for the Councils' experimental labs. A very few of the really lucky ones are assigned as solo agents somewhere that their Base needs long-term eyes. Some wind up as Instructors, also after having their memories edited. It ensures that no magai has ties to a serving unit, and that no Cortiian likely to ever spend time on Base again has any potential hold on a magai.

What happens to the Cortiora who accepts a place on Council, of course, is something only known to the Councils. No one has ever successfully infiltrated the Councils.

Author: Implosion

Author implosion may be a little over-dramatic. A little. I didn't wake up next to anyone I didn't recognise, I didn't wind up in the drunk tank, and no one had to call emergency services.

So why, you may well ask, have I been completely absent from my writing, my websites, my social media...my life?

Fair. It's been a very busy few weeks - actually, a very busy month since I was last able to really put on my author hat and have fun. This is largely due to my day job, where things unfolded very favourably (for me), in that I landed a very cool new job inside the company, with a lot more actual involvement in the day-to-day business and far more responsibility. I'm thrilled. But, while I've been teaching myself a new and very responsible job, I've also been maintaining half of my old job, meaning I've been crawling home with my head spinning and barely the energy to fall flat on my face.

"Work is the curse of the writing classes." (Misquote) Oscar Wilde.

There've also been the renovations at home. Also a very good thing, as I found an awesome contractor (a species in amazingly short supply in the Greater Vancouver area), and all our bathrooms now have actual, working doors on them. (Ever tried to used the facilities while being stared at by a curious cat? Can be very off-putting...) But, also something that requires organisation, talking to people, and playing Russian Roulette to determine who's going to take a day off work this time and let people into the house.

Plus, and possibly the most devastating to the fragile system which preserves my author time in the wild, we finally bought a gaming computer and rigged it up into the media system downstairs. The combination of the opportunity of all my favourite ways to blow shit up in full surround sound and coming home brain-fried has contributed to some record-breaking shootouts and zero writing happening. (Steam, I'm looking right at you...)

However, I finally have some vague clue what I'm supposed to be doing at work, the snow has finally melted and stayed gone, and the cherry blossoms are out, meaning that my favourite time of the year is here. (No, I do not suffer from hayfever. Feel free to hate me.) I also have four days off work for the Easter weekend, so I'm hoping that I will have the time and energy to make the rounds of my online hangouts, buy everyone a round, and get dug into the final third of my sci-fi sequel. Maybe I'll even get back to my Welsh language course. (Do not ask why Welsh.)

May the chocolate-depositing bunny be good to you.

Get Inspired: Week 9

First seen on the Space Trash Blog.

Dreaming of reality (Get Inspired, week 9)

It's cute how people try to break everything down into manageable chunks. It's like watching a five-year-old doing a jigsaw, and turning that last piece of sky around five times to get it to fit in a four-sided hole.

I especially love listening to them on the science of dreaming. 'Dreaming is a mental filing system.' 'They're metaphors for your repressed sexuality.' 'Did you know that every face you see in a dream is the face of someone you've seen, at some point in your life?' Actually, by sheer dumb luck, that last might be the one point they aren't wrong about.

I suppose everyone has to get lucky sometime...there's a thought I'd've lived happily without.

Anyway, thank the Consciousness, dreaming isn't a mental filing system, so I won't have to face the images that calls up some night.

Dreaming is what the conscious mind remembers when you travel between realities. There you go. The big secret, Guide for Dummies style.

Because the human mind is basically an thin skim of intelligence (very, very, very thin in most cases) wrapped around a consciousness that started out remarkably recently as a kind of slime with ambitions (you've heard this story, yes?) - essentially, it can't contain and process what it experiences.

When you fall asleep, you travel between realities. It happens to everyone. Your only solution is never to sleep again, and we know what the experts say about that.

Ever had to deal with people who can't remember to how to tie their shoes or that they had an appointment scheduled? Chances are good those people are falling through this reality, have no idea why they're here or what they're supposed to be doing, and consequently aren't coping well. (Don't worry, they'll wake up - with some odd memories about odder dreams.)

On the flip side, if you're one of those people who has dreams like immersive films, complete with sound, smell and every other sensation, and you can actually remember them once you wake up...well, you're wasting your life at whatever you think you're doing. Give me a call, we'll do dinner. If you're one of those rarities, you have the ability to travel realities intentionally.

Seriously, give me a call. We need you.

This one turned up because I talk to so many people who can't remember dreaming, or dream in black and white (I remain impressed that you can do that, when you see in colour), or whatever. Maybe it's a side-effect of writing too much (not actually sure that's possible), but dreams are hella fun if you're me. Knife fights on the back of old-style steam trains, tigers in storm drains, fighting giant robots, and storming alien factories are just some of the awesome shit that happens when I go to sleep.

Since the usual explanations bore me, I figured I should come up with a better one.