↓
 

Sortmind Blog – Michael D. Smith

Sortmind Blog - Michael D. Smith
  • Home
  • Jack Commer Series – Reviews
    • Jack Commer Book Covers – Drafts and Final
    • The Original Crab Emperor Dream, March 6, 1986
  • Novel Trailers
  • Contact
  • About
    • Flashpoint’s Daughter – The Lists
      • Bone Titles
      • Daughter Titles
      • Duplicate Fiction Titles
  • Sortmind.com
  • Sortmind Press

Post navigation

<< 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 … 21 22 >>

A Terrible New Enemy – Review of The Wounded Frontier

Sortmind Blog - Michael D. Smith Posted on February 17, 2019 by Michael D. SmithJuly 11, 2020

The Wounded Frontier by Michael D. SmithAfter the collapse of the Grid, the vast collective mind of the Alpha Centaurians, humans and Martians in the United System Space Force now find themselves included in a new Grid, one they are told is completely voluntary, but who believes that? This book begins with Jack Commer and his crew embroiled in the nasty climate of resistance and hostility that accompanies widespread change. Called out for their dark histories, vilified and threatened by haters and the establishment, the crew escapes with their lives as they attempt to embark on an important mission to investigate an anomaly in a distant but familiar star system.

Following is the sort of mayhem at which this author excels: bickering, confusion, shock as everything that can go wrong, does, complete with crashing, exploding and vanishing ships, domestic disputes, and questionable solutions, all hanging under the shadow of a vast, unassailable sphere that no one understands. Add in a couple of ancient but expertly retrofitted human robots in the form of Draka Sortie, the suspiciously appointed President of the United System Council; and Jack’s most talented engineer, Laurie Lachrer, and things get even worse, bringing to bear the author’s penchant for smug, obnoxious villains you love to hate.

These books have a great, campy 70s scifi vibe — but without the cheesy special effects: the high tech is well done, sophisticated and interesting. The robots do an alarming amount of damage before the crew figures out what’s going on, and by then it’s too late. Now under the control of an alien race called the Wounded that devours star systems for the energy rush, our heroes must find a way to outsmart the Wounded’s robotic henchmen before the demise of both the Sol and Alpha Centaurian star systems. The conclusion, characteristically wild and unexpected, involves some fallen companions and a mythical dimension where space warriors go after death, no less, making for yet another fun read.

by F. T. McKinstry, author of the Chronicles of Ealiron series

The Wounded Frontier, Book Five of the Jack Commer Series – Background

Posted in Character Images, Double Dragon Publishing, Jack Commer, Novels, Reviews, Science Fiction, Writing | Leave a reply

Sortmind Publication – What You Need to Know

Sortmind Blog - Michael D. Smith Posted on February 16, 2019 by Michael D. SmithJune 25, 2019

Sortmind. a novel by Michael D. SmithSortmind, the Novel

published February 2016 by Sortmind Press

eBook:
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Smashwords

paperback:
Amazon (trade)
lulu.com (mass market)

The Overview

Trantor Group CEO Peter Trantor scrambles to reassure his latest client, the lovely but unreadable bank executive Anna Winstead, that his telepathic Sortmind app really isn’t as deadly as people assume. But he has some explaining to do when a newly-hired programmer at Trantor, Mindwiped by Sortmind abuse, proclaims himself an alien from the planet Cnzaar.

High school art students Oliver Perrine, a survivor of the terrorist bombing of the downtown library, and Sam Emersonn, coolly pragmatic and politically aware, struggle to define themselves against their fascist fathers, the founders of the reviled Citizens Against Telepathy, as its soldiers engage in street battles with its rival, the fanatic Open Telepathy Foundation.

OIiver Perrine copyright 1988 by Michael D. Smith

Oliver Perrine

Architect and reluctant CAT political activist Mitchell Emersonn telepathically reviews his girlfriend Shelley’s files after she too declares she’s an alien from Cnzaar. A library clerk invents hallucinogenic Concentrated Telepathic Tablets and spreads them to the Canterra Art Institute, where Sam and Oliver consume the drug and find themselves confronting Sortmind’s unnerving redefinition of reality.

Sam’s fifteen-year-old sister Teresa discovers she’s a secret link between generations of mystical artists, and that she and Oliver belong to a clandestine society of Tree Leopards. But two opposing sets of aliens alternately kidnap Oliver, each pleading for the impenetrable Tree Leopard Society to assist in their war against each other. Frenzied militias attack the Trantor Building’s Sortmind servers and the app begins evaporating, leaving Oliver to sort out his adolescent fantasies and discover what’s real. Continue reading →

Posted in Akard Drearstone, Character Images, Literary, Marketing, Novels, Publishing, Science Fiction, Sortmind, Sortmind Press, The Soul Institute, Writing, Writing Process | Leave a reply

Harray Andreall’s Wedding Night, July 1975

Sortmind Blog - Michael D. Smith Posted on January 6, 2019 by Michael D. SmithJune 25, 2019
Harray Andreall copyright 2017 by Michael D. Smith

A cinder block falls on Akard Drearstone’s head and he trades his print shop job for lead guitar. Months later, as the four members of the Akard Drearstone Group face the onslaught of national fame, Akard decides to throw a demented wedding reception at his rural Texas commune to honor manager Harray Andreall. But on the way to the commune Harray fights with his bride, the Exponentialist philosopher Michelle Morgan, in front of two hundred guests at the Austin airport.

“Dammit, keep quiet, bitch! Everyone’s gonna think we’re assholes!”

“Ah, fuck you, jerk!” Michelle wrenched open a glass door and stomped away.

“You can’t call yourself mindful!” Harray screamed after her. “You’ll never be able to call yourself mindful!”

She was gone, mixing into a group of well-wishers. Harray went to a public phone and opened the Yellow Pages to Electrical Contractors. Damn, it was bad again tonight. But maybe he should try to keep up with the feeling this time. Retain his calmness, his complete lack of mood.

Like, the Buddhists said that the true disciple attended to the path without getting hung up on being the disciple. In a way that described Harray perfectly. He’d never made the mistake of taking this mindfulness meditation seriously. He just used it where necessary. And that made him a true disciple, a monk of the path, didn’t it?

So Harray had a responsibility to himself and to the universe to make sure Michelle’s petty anger didn’t prevail. He might be damn depressed, but he could still observe, still let karma work itself out.

But he regarded the dull people moving through the terminal and sighed. It was hopeless. Two hundred losers heading off to one more party to distract themselves, to act out their same asshole karma over and over again … and he knew this was what Buddhism was all about. All is suffering.

But the Buddhists saw the suffering and got some sort of cosmic perspective out of it, whereas Harray’s stupid depressions led nowhere. He shuddered to think of all the trivial crap he performed like a machine every day, never grasping any of it. No matter how much he watched his damn breathing, did he ever get any cosmic perspective? Shit, no! Maybe it was time to blow off a little steam. Maybe there wouldn’t be any cosmic perspective, but Harray could still work himself into a damn good snit. He could overwhelm a roomful of plastic partygoers with one of his foul moods, and it would serve them right.  His despair would show them just how miserable their own lives truly were.

Akard Drearstone by Michael D. Smith

Deeper into that same night, contemplating the dissolution of his hours-long marriage, Harray finds a dead body packed in ice on the second floor of the commune barn. Though he tries to convince the sullen members of the group that their musical experiment is worth continuing, Harray’s boss gets arrested on murder charges, the record company veers towards collapse, and Harray is dumbfounded to discover a second killing perpetuated by another band he manages.

copyright 2019 by Michael D. Smith

Akard Drearstone – more info

Posted in Akard Drearstone, Character Images, Excerpts, Novels, Sortmind Press, Writing | Leave a reply

Free Akard Drearstone, Soul Institute, First Twenty Steps

Sortmind Blog - Michael D. Smith Posted on December 24, 2018 by Michael D. SmithApril 30, 2020

The Smashwords End of Year Sale starts December 25 and runs through January 1. During this time my three titles from Sortmind Press will be free from the Smashwords site (links below). You can download Akard Drearstone, The Soul Institute, and The First Twenty Steps in numerous eBook formats including EPUB, mobi (Kindle), PDF, and more.

The Soul Institute by Michael D. Smith

The Soul Institute

Computer technician Himal Steina realizes his dream of a mythic return to the sanctuary of a vast foggy university of Soul when he’s appointed writer in residence at the Soul Institute and falls in love with one of its numerous faculty goddesses.

Akard Drearstone by Michael D. Smith

Akard Drearstone

At their Texas commune in May 1975, the four members of the Akard Drearstone Group begin to feel the onslaught of national fame as twelve-year-old Jan Pace, daughter of a commune couple, falls in love with the narcissistic, paranoid bassist Jim Piston.

The First Twenty Steps by Michael D. Smith

The First Twenty Steps

The motorcycle attack on the Dataflux computer building turns terrifying and surreal as ex-con Harry finds himself outgunned by a rival biker gang. Can his enemies really be protecting spaceship navigational equipment?

Copyright 2018 by Michael D. Smith

 

 

The Soul Institute by Michael D. Smith
Akard Drearstone by Michael D. Smith
The First Twenty Steps by Michael D. Smith
Posted in Akard Drearstone, Literary, Novels, Science Fiction, Sortmind Press, The First Twenty Steps, The Soul Institute, Writing | Leave a reply

Ronan of Space (The Falkrow Narratives Book 3), by Kara D. Wilson – Review

Sortmind Blog - Michael D. Smith Posted on December 1, 2018 by Michael D. SmithDecember 1, 2018

Ronan of Space by Kara D. WilsonThough Rhys Falkrow, now grown to full adulthood, still figures prominently in this final book of the Falkrow Narratives and links the three novels together, his seventeen-year-old son Ronan now takes center stage and matures through a series of fast-paced adventures.

The setting is a future Earth, unrecognizable to us, which long ago devolved into pre-industrial cultures alien to, and warring with, each other.  Books 1 and 2 describe how a young Rhys was flung here years ago as a refugee from the disintegrating spaceship of the advanced Caelestis race, and how he learned to survive on this primitive Earth, make contact with its different cultures, and eventually assume a leadership role.  But in seeking to shield his son Ronan from the high tech, collective mindset of Caelestis, Rhys has kept Ronan in ignorance of his heritage and has more or less abandoned him and Ronan’s mother Kallen.  As Book 3 opens Ronan is little more than an angry juvenile delinquent.  If Rhys was always set outside both the future primitive Earth as well as the world of Caelestis, which disowned him years ago, Ronan is even further outside both, never really belonging to Earth culture nor ever aware of his Caelestis heritage.  Though Rhys’ goal was to let his son know what it was to be fully human, he’s set up conditions that have blocked Ronan from truly understanding himself.

Secrets have been kept from Ronan, and he resents it.  Yet the truth cannot long be denied when Rhys, now commander of Caelestis military operations in Earth orbit, announces emergency evacuations in the face of invasion by the Alphas, a race of evolved humanoids who are eighty percent artificial, function as a computerized hive mind, and wield technology far beyond anything Caelestis has seen.  The Alphas are here to exploit Earth resources, but the descriptions of their schemes are no science fiction cliché: the author posits methods of harvesting our planet which are an unforgettable nightmare.

As Ronan begins to numbly absorb the new developments and his connection to Caelestis, astounding native talents start welling within him, and he’s propelled into the heart of a danger he was never prepared for.  He shares impulsive qualities and leadership skills with his father but, perhaps because of his isolation, before long he begins to transcend his father’s somewhat narrow views of the possibilities the crisis offers.  His eventual contact with a rebellious Alpha, Cassius, completely redefines the nature of the human/Alpha conflict; the ways Ronan and Cassius establish a basis for communication and learn to respect each other set a fascinating cornerstone of this book.

As with Ms. Wilson’s previous two books in the series, Rhys of Earth and Rhys of Quadrant Six, the author’s storytelling skills make a long narrative unfold effortlessly, as imaginative scenes and fresh plot easily pull the reader through an intriguing story.  Nothing is extraneous; there are no unnecessary detours.  The ending is psychologically satisfying and concludes the series well, but we are free to picture Ronan expanding ever further in the future.

review by Michael D. Smith

Ronan of Space at Amazon

Posted in Reviews, Science Fiction, Writing | Leave a reply

Balloon Ship Armageddon, Part 3 – Jack Commer’s Arc

Sortmind Blog - Michael D. Smith Posted on October 18, 2018 by Michael D. SmithJuly 12, 2020

Spacemen, Novel, Earth copyright 2018 by Michael D. SmithIt’s not time for a final assessment of the Jack Commer, Supreme Commander series, but after completing the first draft of the seventh and (probably) last book, I’m beginning to reflect on the long journey from The Martian Marauders to Balloon Ship Armageddon. Space captain Jack Commer has been with me since September 1962, first appearing in four of the thirty-four science fiction stories in my fifth grade Blue Notebook. He and his three brothers then starred in my first attempt at a novel, Spring 1964’s Trip to Mars, and then the unfinished eighth grade draft of The Martian Marauders, a book which I happily rediscovered, completed and rewrote as a modern novel decades later.

I refrained from sprinkling self-serving promotional links into the above paragraph, but we need to get them out of the way or else I’ll have to repeat all that content here.

A Writing Biography, Part II: The Blue Notebook
Trip to Mars in Paperback
The Irregular Origin of the Martian Marauders

The idea for a seventh book to conclude the series originated with Jack’s wife Amav’s declaration at the end of Book Six, The SolGrid Rebellion, that she and Jack ought to mount a search for their traitorous son Jonathan James, who’s just been rendered into a million pieces of jagged glass by a Martian shattergun but, still alive, has been reconstituted as one-third of a solid chromium pyramid. Apparently Jonathan James is heading to a star thirty-four light years away to seek assistance from the deadly Wounded race of artistic exterminators Jack has been battling for the last two books. But there was no plot beyond that, which Jack and Amav both lamented in their blog interviews with me this spring.

I’m not killing off main characters in Seven, or otherwise making an Eight impossible, as, who knows, I may want to compose Eight a few decades from now. I think I’ll relax more working on this novel if I leave this option open. The thought of permanently abandoning some characters like Dar or Kner or Suzette Borman is hard. Worse is the idea of merely tossing them into the seventh book to “resolve them all” as Heinlein did to his galaxy of characters at the end of The Number of the Beast–very tired writing there.

It may be that you’re doing yourself a favor by not writing sequels and returning to the same characters. The often-delivered line from authors, “And then the characters spoke to me and told me their story wasn’t over,” etc. etc., could also be a way of staying comfortable with an arts-and-crafts level of consciousness. Consider Dostoyevsky exploring many of the same themes in new books but always extending them with fresh characters and plot; dynamic beings like Raskolnikov, Rogozhin, or Dmitri Karamazov may share similar forces, but they have wholly unique life stories behind them.

Am I writing fan fiction of my own work? Easy to grab onto Kirk and Spock and run with them, eh?

So the seventh Jack Commer warily sidled up to this concept of continuing characters. But somehow an unusual warm-up for the novel, involving twelve major characters confronting the end of the series, resolved the issue. I decided to interview them in depth, and their responses poured out effortlessly, at a final 22,956 words just the right length. These interviews, with a mix of new characters and old, all understanding this was most likely their final night on stage, infused the coming novel with energy and insight.

I published the interviews on the blog earlier this year, before I began writing Draft 1, and will tastefully not link back to them, unwilling to overdose the reader with even more marketing hooks to my glorious writing skills. But I spoke with:

  1. Rick Ballard, bombastic, ego-saturated seducer, 4/26/18
  2. T’ohj’puv, ancient tetrahedral robot for creating Martian Empress gowns, 4/30/18
  3. Jonathan James Commer, Jack’s troubled, insecure son, 5/1/18
  4. Amy Nortel, Wounded doctor and Jack’s old high school English teacher, 5/2/18
  5. Jack Commer, Supreme Commander, United System Space Force, 5/7/18
  6. Amav Frankston-Commer, Jack’s wife and planetary engineer, 5/9/18
  7. Waterfall Sequence, cloudlike entity of the Ywritt race at the star Iota Persei, 5/11/18
  8. Ranna Kikken Commer, Joe’s Commer’s wife and negotiator with the Ywritt, 5/13/18
  9. Joe Commer, Jack’s brother, Deputy Supreme Commander, and perennial sidekick, 5/15/18
  10. Jackie Vespertine, Ranna’s sister, Joe’s former femme fatale, and influential exobiologist, 5/17/18
  11. Laurie Lachrer 283, insolent robot seeking to supplant the human she’s modeled after, 5/19/18
  12. Laurie Lachrer, the human version, Jack’s new genius physician/engineer, 5/21/18

 

Spacemen, Novel, Earth, Ywritt copyright 2018 by Michael D. SmithOne purpose in declaring this the last Jack Commer novel was to open psychic space for completely new writing after Book Seven. While the daily self may quail at not being up to such a task, deeper levels know there’s a vast unknown novel waiting, a blank at this moment despite recent unproductive idea strip mining experiments. But in any case I’m certain “space opera” isn’t my fate.

But at the end of Draft 1 I found myself semi-consciously loading in teasers to a future Jack Commer novel: four deadly Wounded Class A human robots are still at large, and Jack and six series comrades have just embarked on a dangerous mission to the multidimensional Uninhabitable Sphere of leftover karmic crap from the beginning of the universe. Those unresolved plot bits can both end the series and invite speculation for a sequel that nevertheless doesn’t demand to be written. A good place to be.

Though I’ve been reluctant to do so, I decided it was time to reread the entire Jack Commer series. I think I was mainly worried about the quality of the first book, since I hadn’t reread it in years, and I wasn’t eager to discover typos in Four through Six, which I haven’t reread since publication, And there are always typos. An obvious reason for rereading is to make sure the final book doesn’t contradict the others–though, armed with insanely long facts, character, and chronology files, I’m not expecting much in the way of that. But I also hope to find some new insight for Balloon Ship Armageddon.

Then a couple nights ago came the happy rediscovery of the excellent first paragraph of The Martian Marauders, and I’m finding Book One to be a solid and enjoyable story, one which retains the free-flowing kid logic of its abandoned eighth grade draft. Sure, there are some stylistic changes I’d make, as I’ve honed my writing skills on subsequent novels, and there’s really nothing like publication to force you out of the rut of old styles you’ve been attached to. There’s definitely been a lot of growth through these seven books.

As this decades-long series begins, with Typhoon I orbiting dead planet Earth:

The five hundred-mile-wide crater had been thoroughly radar-mapped, though nobody had ever seen it. They all knew the ground was still burning eight months later. Copilot Joe Commer looked away. Imagine the red-orange lava beneath all that soot.

copyright 2018 by Michael D. Smith

Book 1.  The Martian Marauders
Book 2.  Jack Commer, Supreme Commander
Book 3.  Nonprofit Chronowar
Book 4.  Collapse and Delusion
Book 5.  The Wounded Frontier
Book 6.  The SolGrid Rebellion

Posted in Balloon Ship Armageddon, Early Writing, Interviews, Jack Commer, Novels, Science Fiction, The SolGrid Rebellion, Writing, Writing Process | Leave a reply

Balloon Ship Armageddon, Part 2 – Problematic Composition

Sortmind Blog - Michael D. Smith Posted on October 12, 2018 by Michael D. SmithJuly 12, 2020

Ranna Kikken Commer in 2076 copyright 2018 by Michael D. Smith

Ranna Kikken Commer in 2076

I felt disconcertingly cold towards Balloon Ship Armageddon, both during its writing and in the week after finishing it, until I wrote the previous blog post on its origins, including a silly overblown synopsis. At once I felt a strong new connection to the novel, and a desire to fully feel what it means to end the Jack Commer series. The composition of the book has had its ups and downs, including the realization that I’ll probably have to eventually self-publish it. (Unsure of that yet–more later.) Though novel forces did channel themselves into the writing sessions, much as they’ve always done, I’ve also felt distant from the book during a time of several stressful interruptions from daily life. Unconscious energies seem to have pushed this story in certain directions I hadn’t planned, but in retrospect I welcome them all.

Selected observations written from February 19th through October 6th will now take over in a crude emotional timeline. The notes are usually several days to a week apart:

The vaporware of a Jack Commer 7, which I do want to write but don’t want to feel rushed on.

The 2/20 visionary dream of space wars and empires.

The concept of new writing can be unsettling, because you’re not inside the magic consciousness of the novel yet and so doubt it can be done. Well, it may just be time to start pulling together some notes and just get started. See what happens.

I sense I’m closer than I think to new writing. Not quite ready to jump into a Chapter One just yet, of course, but it may be closer than I suspect. I think JC Seven may be the first one of some new kind of writing.

Now I can feel a major shift: I’m looking to “new novel” not out of a desire to “prove I can do it,” but because I need it to grow.

Okay: the decision has been made (and I leave that in passive voice because somehow that’s how it happened) to start JC 7 as soon as practicable. Even today’s writing session is starting it. There are enough ideas to get it rolling, and even if it’s a failure, so what? But now I’m seeing that the seventh book should conclude the series. The series has no overarching plot, but there can still be a conclusion, and I can be done with the series and characters on my own terms, not just “I wrote six of them and never got around to doing more.”

Jack Commer, Supreme Commander by Michael D. Smith

Jack’s wife Amav dominating the cover of Book Two, Jack Commer, Supreme Commander

So more Jack and Amav, and whatever characters I think need some amplification, but this time all expressed in a testbed of new writing and new energy. I want JC 7 to be fun storytelling; just see where it goes. There is also some research on neighboring stars to do, some framework to set in place. Rereading the first books in the series is also probably a good idea.

Some more thoughts and integration-yearning on a Jack Commer Seven this past week, along with the blog post on the Alpha Centaurian stars. JC 7 still needs some great focus, as right now it’s just sort of run-of-the-mill plot. Then again, many of my novel notes started this way. I remember thinking the original Collapse and Delusion notes weren’t that much of a story.

I’m having that “pre-novel malaise,” like the initial feeling of coming down with a cold. But somehow all this seeming negativity is pointing to something uncanny and new.

The main writing news is that I’m happily 12,000 words into interviewing twelve of the characters for Jack Commer Seven, having done six of the twelve since 4/1, and it feels like a mixture of notes and fiction, very therapeutic and with some good surprises. So about halfway done, expecting ca. 40-50 pages single-spaced.

Just finished the Jackie Vespertine interview, have two more to go to finish the twelve. It all feels great, and each character has given me fresh insights.

The major creation news is finishing the twelve interviews for Jack Commer Seven, which would fill 96 standard pages at 22,956 words. Each of the twelve characters has been a surprise, and I can feel their energy adding immensely to the book. I even edited the 48 single-spaced pages down to ca. 14 for nuggets of plot, and split these up in seven proposed “areas.” But I need to leave the notes alone for a while. There have been some great additions from the interviews, but so far only the first few scenes of JC 7 seem like writable fun; the rest are interesting ideas tacked onto what feels like dull plot. (Jack and Amav especially commented on this.)

I “seem” to be “almost ready” to “start” Jack Commer Seven. The most recent round of notes/ideas has at least removed major obstacles or dullness, and there is some sort of plot. I find myself blocking out the first couple chapters, a good sign. And weirdly, despite the pervasive busy-ness of life, which I know I’ve complained about since high school, it’s almost as if a certain number of unimportant actors have quietly left the stage, and the lights are coming up on bare boards and a seventeen-hour improvised monolog–which somehow, I don’t fear performing. The twelve Jack Commer character interviews were like writing a refreshing quick novella–they did not seem busy or stressful or obligatory–and they’ve given this project a lovely backbone, along with my listening to several recently-published science books over the past few weeks. So even if the first draft is a sprawling mess, there’s a heart to it already, and a psychic space around the project.

There’s a background of negatives that I need to be working on as well, but somehow everything feels to be moving in the right direction. The new writing is both separate from the concern about The Negative and yet tied to it somehow; there is some movement forward I’m surfing on with novel and daily life in tandem.

Started Balloon Ship Armageddon on 5/31.

During this time I’ve written 38 pages of Balloon Ship Armageddon, enough to start relaxing and to feel confident about the process.

Still stumbling forward in BSA but each chapter does open things up more. It’s funny, even after only 97 pages, to go back and reread say pages 13-20 and realize I’d completely forgotten writing them!

Suzette Borman copyright 2018 by Michael D. Smith

Suzette Borman, who continues to demand a greater role in the novel.

Balloon Ship Armageddon, at 113 pages, has had its moments, including the wondrous forgetting of entire chapters from a couple weeks ago. I’m not about to judge it as a novel right now. It’s certainly not the time for it. However, I’m not feeling much magic so far–not that I require that, and I definitely will finish this novel and see here it leads–but the writing seems rushed and somewhat tired, with not much in the way of sparks. Then again, expecting the writing to “have sparks” and “be entertaining” is getting away from the purpose of a novel. While new ideas and relationships are popping up unexpectedly–always a good sign–there’s a sense of tired and ambiguous plot to come. The characters seem somewhat flat as I try to work out the plot around them. That can be remedied in a second draft, but … characters are everything. Why are they not developing? Or are they and I’m just sort of blind to it now?

Where are the interesting energies that came up in the twelve interviews?

Basically I need to pull back–not for any extended length of time, but enough to throw out some entirely new ideas, even if they’re silly at first glance. Also to see what may be unworkable (i.e., boring to write) in the upcoming notes. I think one unconscious paradigm I’ve been laboring under is that I need to limit my characters to five or six, limit the plot to a simple journey to the Greater Magellanic Cloud, enshrine the 2/20/18 dream (the star map), and, perhaps most daunting of all, finish the series with some grandiose “statement.”

So the above has been an energy drain, and maybe has kept me from experimenting. I absolutely can’t decide whether the series is done until I finish BSA.

I don’t want to write BSA as some assignment to complete before embarking on entirely new writing. Any novel deserves your complete attention.

Jack Commer copyright 2014 by Michael D. Smith

Jack Commer in 2076

I’ve followed the concept of “characters needing resolution” within a book for years. Sometimes you see that a character needs fuller development in a given book, but that should come from their personal high energy physics, not from a need to conclude something like a therapeutic relationship with one’s analyst. And their high energy may leave them stranded or open-ended or even magnificently unresolved. So be it. Why aim for fussy pottery and perfect tapestry?

At 140 pages on Balloon Ship Armageddon and not much to say about it now except that a) it’s been surprisingly much more difficult than other novels, b) but the rough draft results aren’t bad at all, c) I spent a few days reorganizing ideas for the rest of the book and it does seem writable now, and d) I’m starting to warm up with good psychological associations. So we’ll just see where this thing leads.

At 43,317 words now, 16 chapters and 163 pages. I’m feeling good about this novel, even though its “unsteady energy” aspects have been with me from the beginning. Some themes and investigations are developing which I’d hardly been able to conceive of at the beginning.

Good writing on BSA and now I can relax about finishing it; it will happen at its own pace. At ca. 54,000 words and 202 pages. Have no idea how far I really am through it now–halfway, one-third, etc.

Waterfall Sequence copyright 2018 by Michael D. Smith

Waterfall Sequence, entity from the star Iota Persei

I think I’m maybe 60-80 pages from finishing. It’s going well; even the fact that I’ve completely forgotten earlier parts of it, and must sometimes reread previous chapters to make sure the current chapter is grounded, seems to indicate fresh raw creation that can be amplified later. But there have been some problematic aspects of BSA, most of all a sense of the writing being rushed or done out of obligation, and of not quite feeling involved with it. And yet … each writing session seems to bring out some buried or channeled stuff I hadn’t imagined in any of my notes. So there is some stretching going on. Whether or not this will be the final Jack Commer remains open, but I sense that the difficulty I’ve had so far is a mood of completion. And the plot itself seems to indicate we can’t get any further.

I’m trying to marshal energies for the last part of BSA. How it ends is still vague, but I can’t do much more than assess my notes and see what happens in actual fiction. Somehow I’ve gotten 294 pages done over the past four months, and I know there’s some great stuff in there. Naturally this thing will need a thorough revision, but it’s hard to speak about that with the first draft not yet done. There are characters and themes all over the place; some may succeed and others not. I don’t want to write a fast sloppy ending to this, but I can’t hold out for a perfect resolution of everything, either. Trust in the channels and this will be finished as appropriately as I can do it.

Possibly fifteen to twenty pages from the end of BSA. It does seem too conceptual now, so I don’t have to be attached to the current eight pages of notes. Need a few days off to contemplate how this could go. But even if there are no breakthroughs, I’ll just finish it in any case, see what a second draft implies.

Balloon Ship Armageddon Draft 1 was more or less a rough ride. Completed it in a most-of-the-day session, 10/6. 333 pages, 88,007 words. I believe the title will stay the same, as opposed to all Jack Commer novels except The Martian Marauders. I’ll sit on this awhile; I need some relaxing, some observing, some meditating.

Copyright 2018 by Michael D. Smith

Posted in Balloon Ship Armageddon, Character Images, Jack Commer, Novels, Science Fiction, Writing, Writing Process | Leave a reply

Balloon Ship Armageddon, Part 1 – Origins

Sortmind Blog - Michael D. Smith Posted on October 11, 2018 by Michael D. SmithOctober 11, 2018

T'ohj'puv copyright 2018 by Michael D. Smith

The T’ohj’puv Pyramid

I completed my seventeenth novel on October 6. This is the first draft of Balloon Ship Armageddon, the seventh and last Jack Commer, Supreme Commander novel, a statement I make with crossed fingers because who knows whether I might ever want to take Jack up again? I can’t help but notice that the force of rough draft logic left in a couple hints for future work …

I say this novel is “completed” because to me a finished rough draft is in some sense a completed novel. Something has been psychically started and finished. A truly “final completion” to manuscript status is of course X units of time away.

I haven’t reread the book yet and will probably let that task slide for a few more weeks. I’ve already had the alternately delightful and disturbing experience, common to a reasonably long draft of 88,000 words, of looking back to earlier chapters, composed a couple months ago, that I’d completely forgotten having written. So rereading a first draft is often like reading someone else’s book, and ideally should be conducted as noncritically as possible, giving the story a chance to breathe before the foundation construction crew arrives for Draft 2.

It’s hard to come up with any sort of synopsis, or the kind of marketing paragraph you’re expected to provide for a final manuscript. The initial draft seems to have sprung out of the unconscious, and so we have the following dreamlike babble:

In Book Six, The SolGrid Rebellion, Jack’s rebellious son Jonathan James wound up trapped inside a solid chromium pyramid after being obliterated by a Martian shattergun. In Balloon Ship Armageddon he’s successfully separated out from the pyramid to become a Wounded robot, though the two companions trapped inside the pyramid with him, Rick Ballard and T’ohj’puv, die horribly. The Wounded are a robotic race that infiltrate civilizations in order to steal all the energy from their stars to create quasar artworks billions of miles away. Okay. So Jonathan James heads to the Greater Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way 163,000 light years away, and a concept that’s fascinated me from childhood. Jonathan James thinks he’s now a Class J Wounded, but finally realizes he’s in fact a Class A, the highest level, programmed to initiate an Anti-Dark Energy Lens that will destroy the Orion Arm of the Milky Way, including the troublesome Sol which has resisted Wounded attempts at takeover. The Greater Magellanic world Jonathan James conquers, Ailyuae, has no electricity, even down to the subatomic level, and for 124,400 years the leaderless Wounded robots deposited there have fought endless senseless wars floating in balloon ships, since the oceanic surface of the planet is toxic.

Continue reading →

Posted in Balloon Ship Armageddon, Character Images, Dreams, Jack Commer, Novels, Science Fiction, Writing, Writing Process | Leave a reply

The SolGrid Rebellion in Paperback

Sortmind Blog - Michael D. Smith Posted on September 17, 2018 by Michael D. SmithJuly 11, 2020

The SolGrid Rebellion by Michael D. SmithThe SolGrid Rebellion, Book Six of the Jack Commer, Supreme Commander series, is now out in paperback at Amazon. The novel expands a theme introduced in the previous books, the possibilities of telepathic understanding shared among an entire race, versus justifying the fascist control of that telepathic system as a defense against possible hostile aliens. The Sol System has adopted the buggy SolGrid telepathic network designed by former United System Space Force officer Patrick James, but Jack Commer’s charismatic but troubled son Jonathan James instigates a rebellion against what he considers brainwashing. His followers include his lover Suzette Borman, exobiologist Jackie Vespertine, SolGrid First Assistant Sanders Hirte, and warrior dog Trotter.

I’m about two-thirds through the first draft of a seventh Jack Commer novel, Balloon Ship Armageddon, and the plan is to end the series with seven. It’s time to move on from this genre … probably … although, who knows?

Copyright 2018 by Michael D. Smith

More on The SolGrid Rebellion

Posted in Akard Drearstone, Balloon Ship Armageddon, Collapse and Delusion, CommWealth, Double Dragon Publishing, Fairs and Festivals, Jack Commer, Marketing, Martian Marauders, Nonprofit Chronowar, Novels, Publishing, Science Fiction, Sortmind Press, The First Twenty Steps, The SolGrid Rebellion, The Soul Institute, The Wounded Frontier, Trip to Mars, Writing | Leave a reply

The Karma of Fancy One-Line Blog Posts

Sortmind Blog - Michael D. Smith Posted on August 14, 2018 by Michael D. SmithAugust 14, 2018

Cosmicness copyright 2015 by Michael D. SmithI don’t pay much attention to my list of ideas for blog posts, because new ideas keep arising and, when I do peruse my notes, I see many I’ve retained out of obligation and which I know I’ll never write. 

Several have remained just a title and a single sentence of notes, but as one-liners describing the marketing life of a certain author, they have their own expression; as full-blown posts they’d be ponderous. 

So, thinking entirely of the reader’s convenience, I purge them out of my system.

 

Blog Post 1.  What We are Told to Do

What if what we are told to do to succeed may simply number us among the vast majority of merely OK writers?

 

Blog Post 2.  Let’s Agree on a Common First Sentence

If it’s so damn important, it could be licensed for use in every novel.

 

Blog Post 3.  Are You Ready for AI Authors?

What about when we’re competing with computers for authoring formula fiction?

 

Blog Post 4.  Glory

Are you after “glory,” like some politician Civil War general?

 

Blog Post 5.  A Very Special Jack Commer Christmas

Every Christmas for the last several years I’ve thought about writing this smarmy satire, but I have no notes for it, not even one line. The very thought of composing it makes me gag. I just can’t do this to my Jack Commer series, even though of course I know that a special Christmas story would guarantee bestseller status for all six books. But let the title alone suffice.

copyright 2018 by Michael D. Smith

Posted in Jack Commer, Marketing, Novels, Satire, Writing, Writing Process | Leave a reply

Post navigation

<< 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 … 21 22 >>

Subscribe via email

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

Recent Posts

  • The Balloon Ship Interviews: Arrogant, Desperate Characters Audition for the Role of a Lifetime
  • The UR Jack Commer: A Look at the Childhood Beginnings of the Commer Saga
  • Presenting Balloon Ship Armageddon, or, Nine Astronauts Were Walking to a USSF Meeting, or, Jack Commer Shot his Spaceship Directly into the Sun
  • The SolGrid Rebellion, Endings, and Continuations
  • The Wounded Frontier, Including Stellar Trolls
  • Collapse and Delusion, The Seven of Cups, and Unexpected Redemption
  • Nonprofit Chronowar Redux
  • Jack Commer, Supreme Commander, with a Nod to the Crab Emperor
  • The Martian Marauders, Now Digitally Remastered for Your Enjoyment
  • The Jack Commer Resurrection

Blogroll

  • Beauty in Ruins
  • F. T. McKinstry
  • Linda Sprague's Astro Tips
  • Sabin Russell, Science Writer

Links

  • Akard Drearstone from Sortmind Press
  • Amazon author page
  • CommWealth from Sortmind Press
  • Goodreads author page
  • Jack Commer Series from Sortmind Press
  • Jump Grenade from Sortmind Press
  • Kara D. Wilson
  • LibraryThing author page
  • old.sortmind.com
  • Pinterest
  • Smashwords author page
  • Sortmind the novel from Sortmind Press
  • The First Twenty Steps from Sortmind Press
  • The Soul Institute from Sortmind Press
  • Trip to Mars, The Picture Book from Sortmind Press
  • Twitter
  • Where to find my novels

Archives

Categories

  • A Writing Biography (8)
  • Acrylic (12)
  • Akard Drearstone (26)
  • Art Process (20)
  • Astronomy (7)
  • Balloon Ship Armageddon (13)
  • Black Comedy (12)
  • Book Daily (3)
  • Character Images (79)
  • Collapse and Delusion (34)
  • Commer of the Rebellion (10)
  • CommWealth (19)
  • Double Dragon Publishing (58)
  • Drawing (34)
  • Dreams (9)
  • Dystopia (12)
  • Early Writing (28)
  • Editing (23)
  • Essays (6)
  • Excerpts (37)
  • Fairs and Festivals (5)
  • Fantasy (3)
  • Instructions (3)
  • Interviews (18)
  • Jack Commer (103)
  • Jump Grenade (7)
  • Literary (38)
  • Marketing (22)
  • Martian Marauders (55)
  • Nonprofit Chronowar (41)
  • Novels (184)
  • Painting (21)
  • Perpetual Starlit Night (3)
  • Plays (4)
  • Publishing (107)
  • Query Letters (12)
  • Reviews (21)
  • Satire (15)
  • Science Fiction (122)
  • Sculpture (3)
  • Self-Publishing (30)
  • Sortmind (24)
  • Sortmind Press (45)
  • Spaceships (8)
  • Stories (20)
  • Tarot Cards (5)
  • The First Twenty Steps (23)
  • The SolGrid Rebellion (31)
  • The Soul Institute (24)
  • The University of Mars (7)
  • The Wounded Frontier (28)
  • Trip to Mars (18)
  • Trust (6)
  • Twisted Tails (1)
  • Videos (3)
  • Wiess Cracks (3)
  • Writing (197)
  • Writing Process (111)
  • Zarreich (3)

Recent Comments

  • The Balloon Ship Interviews: Arrogant, Desperate Characters Audition for the Role of a Lifetime – Sortmind Blog – Michael D. Smith on Jack Commer Book Seven Interviews, 9: Joe Commer
  • The Balloon Ship Interviews: Arrogant, Desperate Characters Audition for the Role of a Lifetime – Sortmind Blog – Michael D. Smith on Jack Commer Book Seven Interviews, 1: Rick Ballard
  • Presenting Balloon Ship Armageddon, or, Nine Astronauts Were Walking to a USSF Meeting, or, Jack Commer Shot his Spaceship Directly into the Sun – Sortmind Blog – Michael D. Smith on Jack Commer Book Seven Interviews, 5: Jack Commer
  • Presenting Balloon Ship Armageddon, or, Nine Astronauts Were Walking to a USSF Meeting, or, Jack Commer Shot his Spaceship Directly into the Sun – Sortmind Blog – Michael D. Smith on The First Childhood Appearance of Jack Commer, September 19, 1962
  • The SolGrid Rebellion, Endings, and Continuations – Sortmind Blog – Michael D. Smith on Jack Commer Book Seven Interviews, 10: Jackie Vespertine

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org
April 2021
S M T W T F S
 123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
252627282930  
« Mar    

Michael's books

Why Meditate: Working with Thoughts and Emotions
4 of 5 stars
Why Meditate: Working with Thoughts and Emotions
by Matthieu Ricard
WordPress Web Design for Dummies
4 of 5 stars
WordPress Web Design for Dummies
by Lisa Sabin-Wilson
Death from the Skies!: These Are the Ways the World Will End...
5 of 5 stars
Death from the Skies!: These Are the Ways the World Will End...
by Philip Plait
Using Joomla!
3 of 5 stars
Using Joomla!
by Ron Severdia
Serpent's Tooth
5 of 5 stars
Serpent's Tooth
by Toni V. Sweeney
On a cruise Melissa bonds with an older man, Travis, who turns out to be a famous celebrity in hiding from a once successful life. But by degrees we become aware that his enormous success came at the price of bonding with demonic forces...

goodreads.com
Tweets by @sortmind
©2021 - Sortmind Blog - Michael D. Smith - Weaver Xtreme Theme
↑