Anyone can write. At least I suspect that is what some people probably think. It’s true as far as it goes, and anyone can get published in today’s electronic age. Yet not everyone does write, and most of those who do, realize it can be time-consuming and difficult. Difficult doesn’t mean unenjoyable. Difficult means the authors who take it seriously — and most do — treat it like the craft it is. They are always learning, improving and not in a rush to get words out there. The toughest part of this process is the editing phase (at least I think so). Continue reading
Author Archives: Darrick Dean
Hunt for Adventure
James Bond. Doc Savage. Indiana Jones. MacGyver. All guys who seemed to have unlimited resources and unlimited adventures. All owe something to the pulp action stories of yesteryear — with Doc Savage being one of the icons of that era.
Now we have Gabriel Hunt.
The Gabriel Hunt series is an attempt to bring back the pulp action hero by the folks at Hard Case Crime who have almost single-handedly brought back this genre (now published by Titan Books). With a premise of Hunt being “backed by the resources of the $100 million Hunt Foundation and armed with his trusty Colt revolver,” how can you go wrong?
The series is fast-paced escapism as Hunt travels the world in search of lost places, deadly ancient mysterious and Bond-esque villains at every turn. And, of course, Hunt is quite the lady’s man.
Unfortunately, the series only went six volumes. Recently re-released (although not with the original pulp-art covers), maybe the Hunt Foundation will return? Perhaps Hunt can save us from too much “heavy handed message fic” — not that we want to check out from the issues of society, but sometimes escapist fiction can teach us a thing or two.
Like that we need a few more Hunts, Savages and MacGyvers in the world.
Categories: Books, Fiction
Tags: Adventure, Doc Savage, escapism, Gabriel Hunt, pulp fiction
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America: Miracle or the Titanic?
So I ran across The 5000 Year Leap, subtitled A Miracle That Changed the World: Principles of Freedom 101, at a book sale. Here, in one volume, is an accessible volume on the principles that went into writing the U.S. Constitution. The chapter I opened today reads:
3rd Principle: The Most Promising Method of Securing a Virtuous and Morally Stable People is to Elect Virtuous Leaders
Isn’t that a novel idea?
Categories: Critical Thinking, History
Tags: Constitution, elections, politics, Rome, Samuel Adams, Titanic
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The Butterchurn
Author Ren Garcia tries to answer the allusive question of where authors get their creativity:
Creativity is a very personal thing. Where a person draws inspiration from will differ. I suppose, for me, creativity is a result of everything I’ve ever seen, read, watched, smelt, tasted and felt. For those with a creative persuasion these things stay in your head; you dream and ponder about them. It’s also based in all the things you love, you’ve hated, been confused by, been afraid of … everything sort of stirred together over time like a vat of hot butter in the basin of your brain continuously churned, and then recycled into something sort of like what you’ve experienced, but different. Sometimes these images linger in my head for years, slowly evolving over time before I insert them into my books. Lt. Kilos was one such character. I saw her in my thoughts for a long time, initially a banana blonde, in a colonial uniform holding a gun. Eventually the rough-and-tumble lady from Tusck spilled out onto the page, though quite a bit different than what I’d dreamed of. Things always turn out different once you get to writing.
Write About People, Not Race
As issues of race dominate the news, H.G. Ferguson writes in Playing the Race Card on how authors should approach this:
We should write about people, not race, regardless of genre, and avoid the stereotyping and, if I may be so bold, true racism that can occur when we do not…Three films speak to this question in a powerful way: Dances with Wolves (1990), Unconquered (1947), and The Last of the Mohicans (1992).
In Dances with Wolves we are treated to a presentation of “truth.” Every single Native person is portrayed as good…every single non-Native person apart from Dunbar and Stands with a Fist is depicted as either stupid, evil, or insane. This viewpoint, in a word, is a lie. Not all Native Americans of that era were good people, and not every non-Native person was evil. Why? Because people are people, and some are good and some are not. That is the truth.
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Turn Right, and Meet Me in the Lost World
In my review of travel adventure books, we have searched for Sheba and explorers of the New World. We have also disappeared into the jungles of Latin America on the trail of lost cities. Now we will return to uncovering the ancient world.
Mark Adams set a benchmark for travel adventure lit with his Turn Right at Machu Picchu. This fish-out-of-water follows the trail of legendary explorer Hiram Bingham who brought Machu Picchu, the hidden Inca mountain refuge, to the world’s attention. A perfect combination of Adams’ travails and history — every bit a page turner as a novel.
Adams followed this adventure up with Meet Me in Atlantis. Here he tries to hunt down the true experts of the legendary lost city, among a field known for, how should I put it, fringe thinkers. His hunt leads to many possibilities, and even though not as much adventuring as his first book, it is a refreshing change to the libraries full of bizarre Atlantis speculations.
Now we turn to David Roberts‘ The Lost World of the Old Ones where he continues his many years of hiking off-trail into the Southwest. Readers will be amazed at how much lies undiscovered and unknown about the civilizations that once populated these states. Roberts chronicles the politics, history and conflicting visions that have attempted to preserve the past — not always successfully. A fascinating and entertaining account that will remind people that United States has its own lost civilization still waiting for discovery
Character Profile: Milena
No other species approaches what man has done. While the dolphins were still swimming in the sea, man was building pyramids. When the monkeys still hid in the treetops, man was landing on the Moon. And yet it is said we have forgotten our full potential. In a age long past, man could see further. The veil was not so dark. What he could do became legend. What he saw became myth. There are those, however, who have remembered who they are and what exists around them.
Some have embraced the Light. Others, the Darkness.
I have walked among the ruins, seen the shades and fought the horrors that lurk in the shadows. I control life around me. The blades surge with power. A mother, a wife. A defender, a warrior. Loving, lethal.
I am Milena. An Arc Maiden. A Watcher. The Darkness will flee from me.
Among the Shadows: Watchers of the Light Book 1
[Photo used under license from Shutterstock.com.]
Categories: Fiction
Tags: Among the Shadows, character profile, Darrick Dean, fantasy, Milena, Watchers of the Light
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Turn: America’s First Spies
Less and less on television holds my attention. Repetition, little creativity and stories that don’t go anywhere. And I’m always asking myself, “Isn’t there something else I could be doing?” So, halfway through last year’s television season, I gave up on what few shows I was watching. There was one big exception, Amazon’s excellent A Man in The High Castle. Now, another gem of a find, AMC’s Turn:
Spies. Revolutionaries. War.
Where can you get this on network tv?
Categories: History
Tags: 1776, AMC, American Revolution, British, Colonials, Red Coats, Turn
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Awakening Strength
A new excerpt from Among the Shadows:
The wild men were too frenzied to notice or care that it was a woman who approached them at a steady pace. One, though, wondered why she didn’t look the least bit afraid, and why her eyes radiated in the fading light. Unfortunately, his fear didn’t overcome his momentum.
Kyra easily deflected the first blade and thrust the other katana into the man’s neck. She pulled it out and turned to block another. He at least made another swing before she wrestled the sword from him and slashed him with her second blade.
This all before the first attacker hit the ground.
Another ran at her, only to be pummeled into the ground by Scout. Two others were almost on him with their swords when they screamed in pain and hit the ground face first. Arrows stuck in their backs. Knights had chased the wildmen, wondering who fought them in the moonlight. A woman appeared out of the light.
“Are you another from the portal? Another Watcher?” They asked her, nervously eyeing the cat as it approached Kyra.
“I suppose I am.” She wiped the blades on the ground. “I came here looking for my mother. Saken took her, and I mean to take her back and show him my mother’s blades.”
“Saken is dead. Your mother saw to that. They left for the portal. That way, where the beast went. It is not far.”
“Come, Scout, this isn’t over.” Alice hadn’t strayed. Kyra mounted her and paused to catch her breath for but a moment. A terrible strength had been awakened in her.
She liked it and she didn’t.
The war has begun.
Categories: Books, Fiction, Writing
Tags: Among the Shadows, Darrick Dean, excerpts, Watchers of the Light
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Kat Bloodmayne is Tainted
Kat Bloodmayne has a secret. She has the power within her to use nature as a weapon. Problem is that she doesn’t know where the power came from or how to control it all that well. People around her are getting hurt, and worse now that she is being hunted for her power.
Hunted by someone she knows well, protected by a man who may not be on her side and running in a world where the darkness is far more sinister than she she could have imagined.
This is Morgan L. Busse‘s new book Tainted. Set in a dystopian steampunk world — think Victorian with airships where science and the old world clash and converge.
Also think fantasy with a bit of Frankenstein simmering in the background.
I was very impressed with Morgan’s new page turner. There have many repetitive attempts at dystopia in book and film, and many failures or not-quite-there steampunk attempts. Morgan doesn’t succumb to these pitfalls and creates an original story in a well-realized world. I could see this story playing out on the big screen and Morgan has certainly established herself as a storyteller to pay attention to.
And Kat Bloodmayne is not a heroine to be trifled with.
Categories: Books, Fiction, Uncategorized
Tags: dystopian, fantasy, morgan l busse, steampunk, Tainted
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Darrick Dean 