Author Archives: Thomas A. Mays

Pre-Maturity

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Honestly, the things I do for you people . . . .

Here I go, venturing out into the frigid, snowy climes of arctic North Carolina.  Why would I do such a foolhardy thing, putting life, limb, and the relatively clean paint-job of my truck in such terrible danger?

(Note, no snark from those of Winter, who consider four inches of snow to be a laughably light dusting!)

I’ve gotta get my winners their copies of A Sword Into Darkness in the mail before the big Launch Day tomorrow, of course!  Now, not everything with the contest has ended smoothly.  I’ve only gotten three mailing addresses for five winners, so I really hope the other two respond soon or I’ll be forced to shift their wins to other, more aware contestants.  But I can hack that.  It’s all this snow!  Where’s my global warming!  (Note to those on either side of the climate change “debate”:  This is non-issue-oriented-generic-late-night-talk-show-host snark.  PLEASE do not inundate me with diatribes on the evidence for your side of the issue.  My stance remains my stance and private for the purpose of this blog.)

So, I’m a day late with my mailings, but I’m a couple of days EARLY with my launch!  Official Launch Day for the book/e-book is still tomorrow, but impatient and eagle-eyed observers may have already noted that the ASID tile at the top-right of this blog (in desktop mode, anyways) now says BUY A SWORD INTO DARKNESS vice the earlier variations of Coming Soon.  They’ll also note that the picture leads to a new version of the ASID Novel and Gallery page, while the Amazon, Kindle, and Createspace links lead to . . . ACTUAL SALE PAGES WHERE YOU CAN BUY THE BOOK RIGHT NOW!!!  

Plus, I’ve got my very-own first public review from a real person not involved in the writing process, a lovely 5-star ode from Winchell Chung, maestro of Atomic Rockets.  Thank You, Nyrath!  If you’ve read the book, or are reading the book, or intend to read the book, first of all thank you, but secondly I’d love to hear what you thought about it and appreciate any reviews you’d care to give on the Amazon pages or the booksellers of your choice.  I’d love it even more if you liked/loved the book and gave it a favorable review and recommended it to your friends and family, but that’s up to you.

Check back tomorrow for Launch Day!  Happy Reading!!

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Devious Bastards — Who Won A FREE BOOK?

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First of all, THANK YOU to all the folks that participated in our little contest here. Whether for the eagerness to acquire a copy of A Sword Into Darkness, or the joy of entering a contest, or an actual need to show any potential invaders just how nutty and tenacious a bunch of murderers these largely hairless primates can be, I got dozens of entries, which — on a personal level — is very very satisfying (especially as launch day approaches).

Secondly . . . WOW, you guys are some DEVIOUS BASTARDS.  If I were an invading race, I’d be quakin’ in my space boots right about now.  Out of these dozens of answers for how YOU would stop an alien invasion, not a single one was exactly the same.  That’s some ingenuity right there.  They can, however, be grouped together in a few broad categories. 

Category A:  Hard(ish) Military Science — a few, but fewer than I originally imagined, went the realistic route.  Rather than delve into silliness, these armchair Ulysses Grants / bathtub Alfred Thayer Mahans took it as a serious challenge.  From using infiltration and subterfuge to lull the enemy in close before decisively striking, to making use of scouting raids and offensive probes, you all were methodical and calculating.  Shall we seed the high orbits with so much fast-moving debris (a la the film Gravity) or tungsten penetrators so it becomes suicide to approach?  Or should we stick to nukes and biological warfare and play the attrition game (playing NASTY, y’all)?

Category B:  Socio-Political Barbs — what’s the best way to answer a zinger?  Why, with a zinger of one’s own!  While these methods might not stop a fo-realsy alien invasion, they surely do put a hurtin’ on those humans that array themselves on the opposite side of a cultural divide.  Climate change?  Check!  High taxation?  Check!  Reality TV and the Internet as the cultural nadir of mankind?  Double Check! 

Category C:  Artistic Callbacks — let’s play “Spot the Reference!”  These folks firmly believe in not re-inventing the wheel.  Our greatest SF writers and directors have already produced soooo much material, destroying alien invasions in every way imaginable, WHY NOT utilize that resource?  These homages were both filmic and literary (plus radio show if you’re including original Hitchhiker’s Guide), and they indeed put a smile on my face.  H. G. Wells, Douglas Adams, H. P. Lovecraft, James Cameron, Russell T. Davies (Doctor Who and Torchwood), Galaxy Quest, Independence Day, and others all get referenced, and they all get a salute from me.

Category D:  Sheer Insanity — uuuuuummmmmm, right.  These were the most inventive . . . sometimes the most outright fun . . . but you might wanna make sure the NSA doesn’t know where you live.  🙂  We got your zombie clones of Dennis Rodman, interplanetary “Burning Man” festivals, Aerosmith attacks, sharknado-style laser rodeos, etc.  Magnificently warped, and I mean that in the best way possible!

Sub-Category F-U-Tom:  Some folks just don’t like a little shameless self-promotion.  I get it, I’m new to the Twitter-sphere and the art of selling yourself on Facebook.  Did I overstep by directly tweeting writers and self-identified sci-fi fans?  Perhaps.  Did I inadvertantly turn myself into a spam-bot?  Eh, I don’t think so, but then again, I don’t get all the unsolicited crap that many of my more experienced betters receive.  I was just trying to innocently get the word out and have a little fun with folks.  So, yes, I got called a spammer.  I got un-followed and blocked by some.  I was even accused of being an account hijacker and an untrustworthy person.  Ouch.  So, if my contest and the way I promoted it upset you, I apologize.  My only defense is being naive and inexperienced.  My only saving grace is that for every person I lost, I gained 4-5 more.  I can take that math.

Brass tacks time:  WHO WON?!?!?  Well, there were many worthy entries, so don’t take it badly if you didn’t get picked, but I only have so many copies of ASID to go around.  Therefore, in my expert-and-only-somewhat-random opinion, the Grand Prize winner of one proof copy is:  Michael Nicholas!  Michael was a bit of a triple-whammy in that he gave a great Dr. Evil-esque / SyFy Channel answer with his astronauts on flying sharks with frickin’ laser beams on their heads, covering categories C and D, then gave a completely separate answer about “scorched orbit” policies in Category A, seeding clouds of tungsten ball bearings through the approaches to Earth.  Michael, congrats!

But wait, there’s more!  Runner-up with the most tantalizingly nostalgic literary reference was T. Gene Davis, who made me go back and re-read my half-forgotten copy of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (series) in order to get the reference about the alien fleet being swallowed by a small, yawning dog.  You get my other available proof copy!

Advanced Reader Copies (which are 98.7% identical to the final publication/proof version) also go to Cara Brookins for Most Re-Tweeted Answer, Adam Vickery for Most Bi-Polar Answer, and Donna Kallas for the Sheer Volume/No Hard Feelings slot.

I hope you all enjoy the books and I encourage your honest (and hopefully favorable) review on Amazon and/or the book vendor of your choice when you get done.  As for the rest of you lot, I hope you are intrigued enough to go pick up your own copies on Friday!  And, if you’d like to read all the best entries, you may find them compiled HERE:  Zinger Contest Entries

Happy Reading!!

 

The Zinger Contest — Win a FREE Book!

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The Trade Paperback and Kindle editions are ready to go, and they will do just that next Friday, January 31st.  But you can get your very own kick-ass copy of A Sword Into Darkness RIGHT NOW.

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Dylan has your space-opera-crack . . . and HE KNOWS IT.

To enter, you have to provide your own answer to the question posed in Chapter 3.  Nathan thinks the question is just a “zinger,” an interview exercise designed to show your prospective boss how you think.  Little does he realize that tech magnate Gordon Lee is completely serious when he asks, “How would you stop an alien invasion?”

So, that’s the question posed to you, dear reader:  How would YOU stop an alien invasion?

Provide your best Twitter-esque answer either here in the comments, on Facebook, on Twitter, on Tumblr, or via e-mail.  The only limit is the 140 characters (or so) of a standard tweet.  Otherwise, shoot for the moon (perhaps literally).  You can enter as many times as you want between now and Monday at 2359 eastern time.  Your answer can be based on the hardest of sciences, rely on supernatural forces (Cthulu smash!), Star Trek level handwavium / Doctor Who-ish macguffins, or be completely fun, insane, or off the wall.

On Tuesday, my panel of experts and I will quantifiably determine the absolute best answer and that worthy soul will receive a free proof copy of A Sword into Darkness via US mail before the big launch day.  I also have a few extra Advanced Reader Copies lying around which are just begging to get mailed out.

Enter soon and enter often and may the best invasion-stopper win!

Let the Sunshine In

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If you find yourself on the East Coast (of the US) today, you’ll likely be dealing with cold, cold temps and fresh mounds of snow.  For those of us in northern North Carolina / Hampton Roads Virginia, it’s likely your first snow of the year.  Soooo, everything is shut down.  As a result, the anticipated delivery of my proofs did not happen.  I’d love to show ’em off, but I gots nada.

In the spirit of the snow day, here is very different A Sword Into Darkness pic.  Newport, RI is blanketed under a fresh foot of the white stuff today, but this depicts a much warmer scene:

Destroyers Return To Newport

The Destroyers Return To Newport

This depicts a pre-refit Sword-class astrodynamic destroyer coming down to land in Naragansett Bay next to the Naval War College, coming home just as the destroyers did in WW-II.  Now, this pic is quite fanciful, in that those landing jets would essentially boil half the bay and blast everything around them with a concussive force of superheated steam just shy of a nuclear blast, and also that the crew would be standing perpendicular to their decks since they are designed for continuous acceleration forward, not landing horizontally in gravity.  The ship really should be pointed upwards like a tower.

But I like it regardless.

By the way, I’m getting a lot of visitors today, so if you are in the mood, I welcome you to check out a few of my short stories.  ALSO, my friend Nathaniel has put his radio play up for sale, a radio play based upon my Improbable Adventures of Dylan Darby story Gambler’s Cruise.  The goal is to raise enough money and interest to actually make an entire series of steampunk/rocketpunk radio plays in an alternate timeline.  It is a worthy project and you should go check it out here.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m going to bundle my blanket a bit tighter around me, cook a big ol’ pot o’ chili and some corncakes, then sit down with a few beers and irish coffees in order to forget about the snow.  Check back tomorrow for (hopefully) proof of proofs and a contest TO WIN ONE!

Broadside!!!

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First, a little of the old ultra-violence to make up for yesterday’s serenity:

Trenton Broadside1

Broadside!!!

That is, of course, the USS Trenton (CA-1) with railguns and laser emplacements slewed out to the side, performing a full broadside of all batteries as a power and weapons’ integration test.  In my imagination, the cruiser’s fire control logics would have to automatically compensate for the impulse of the railgun shots by briefly firing attitude thrusters to offset the resulting spin.  It is once more a Cinema 4D shot.  I like this one, because it is a) cool and b) let me play a lot with hard shadows and point light sources.  The Earth below is my own construct, using conformal cloud maps, satellite composites, and semi-transparent shells for the atmosphere.  

Speaking of broadsides and publishing, my IRL / FB friend and mentor Mark Ellis fired off his own broadside concerning the “traditional” publishing industry and how his own attitudes as a very successful mid-list author have changed concerning self-publishing.  If you can get to Facebook, the post itself is very illuminating, but it expands to genius in the comments.  

Here is the link:  Hudsucker Proxy

And here is the meat of the post if the link does not work (used with Mark’s permission):

I don’t talk much about the publishing industry here for a couple of reasons…mainly because unless you’re in it, the whole field and process is misunderstood to the point of it being arcane.

But here’s how *I* feel…it’s my opinion based on my experiences…and it’s my FB page…so…

Publishing underwent a vast change several years ago, known as “Black Wednesday”…the economic upheaval which affected so many other industries seriously damaged what is known as “tradtional” publishing…except, unlike the auto and banking industries, there were no government bail-outs or breathless updates every five minutes on CNN and MSNBC.

One of the major changes that I experienced (other than advances being slashed) is how the final decision of what would be published now rested primarily with the sales departments…not editors or editorial committees but salespeople.

In the wake of these changes, self-publishing became a viable alternative to hitherto traditionally published writers like me. Yeah, at first I considered it the same as vanity presses, but after being dealt with unethically by a publisher who first enthusiastically accepted Cryptozoica and then reneged on the agreement, I went in that direction.

It was a decision I’ve never regretted.

As for so-called “traditional” publishing…it’s never recovered from Black Wednesday and it’s feeling the bite of independent and self-publishing. Spokesmen for the industry have lately been working hard to disparage the whole thing, due in the main to outright fear. A couple of years ago, self-publishing was beneath their notice…but now–

One of the implications I perceive in these messages is this: 

Solidly selling midlist writers like myself who spent years building a readership should just go ahead and DIE ALREADY and stop taking readers away from the writers traditional publishers want them to read.

Doesn’t matter that we write what our fans want to read and buy–it’s more important we have the good grace to accept our careers are over because a handful of corporate flunkies decided they are.

It’s sorta like the Sidney J. Mussberger mantra from THE HUDSUCKER PROXY when he tries to convince Norville Barnes he’s washed up and should kill himself: “When you’re dead…you stay dead.” 

Uh-uh.

Here’s my counter-solution: Accept reality, fix what you f**ed up, treat writers ethically and honestly, keep your word and maybe you won’t be so scared all the time…and you just might be able to save your own jobs.

Mark is a prolific author of over 40 adventure novels and thrillers, including many of the “James Axler” novels, Deathlands and Outlanders series, as well as his latest Cryptozoica.

 

Mixed Media Between God and Me

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Happy MLK Day, fellow Americans of every race, creed, religion, and persuasion!  For those not in the know, or my international visitors, or those who believe today is a frivolous day off, I heartily recommend you fulfill a civic and humanitarian duty:  check out the story and the words of a great orator, theologian, and leader of men, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  He imagined a better world, and I do think the world has become better between the ’60s and today (not that I experienced it first hand), but we have not yet achieved his great Dream.  He is a man deserving of memory and memorial, so I urge you to consider today as my employer once urged me to consider it: Today is a day ON, not a day OFF.

Now, there’s not a great deal of tie-in between Dr. King and my little space opera, but in honor of today I’ve decided to post a pic lacking the violent note of many of my renders.  Today is about beauty, grace, and the possibilities of the future, so please enjoy this of my ASID pictures:

CRUDESGRU One

CRUDESGRU One, Underway

Yes, they are warships, but they are quiescent warships, vessels far flung from home, awash in the light of a distant sun, and against the grandest of backdrops.  This pic is Cinema 4D again, with the Sword-class destroyers post-refit, and the Trenton in the center.  I did steal a little for this pic.  The nebula is not of my creation.  As I say in the blurb on the pic, that is a product of God and physics, two things that some see in diametric opposition to one another, but which I see as complementary and unified in every important way.  The Orion Nebula is beautiful, and I love this pic for the beauty I make use of.  These ships are not at war.  They cruise in peace, exploring, realizing the dream that generations of men and women before lived and died to make possible.  This pic makes me a little happier inside.

In other/related news, January 31st is only 11 days and 8-10 blog posts away.  That should allow me to put up several more pics, wax rhapsodic about the book, let you peek into my mind, and also offer you a chance to win a copy.  What can you do?  Keep visiting, keep sharing it with your friends and on your blogs, re-post, re-tweet, and forward The Improbable Author to all your sci-fi lovin’ friends and family.  Remember, I am after your beer money, but I also think I’m giving you a great experience in return.  So share the wealth and see you tomorrow! 

 

Blueprint 2.0

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The eye candy continues as we close in on Launch Day (31JAN2014):

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USS Trenton (CA-1) Blueprint Shot

Similar to yesterday’s pic of the USS Sword of Liberty, this astrodynamic cruiser and her sister ship are also featured in A Sword Into Darkness as the flagships to CRUDESGRU ONE and TWO (CRUDESGRU = Cruiser – Destroyer Group as opposed to a DESRON or Destroyer Squadron).  The Trenton, built as a follow-on to the original destroyer and addressing the limitations revealed in the novel’s first big battle, features much greater redundancy, deeper magazines, and increased survivability.  Similar to our Ticonderoga class wet-navy cruisers today, the Trenton is named after a famous US battle at the state capitol of New Jersey, and there have in fact been four USS Trenton‘s in the US Navy, one of which is to be commissioned this year.

As for the pic itself, this was also made in Cinema 4D, and I so liked the missile hatch design on this one, I went and retrofitted the SOL with the same configuration and magically gave myself another 30 missiles (requiring me to do a quick re-write of the manuscript).  This missile module configuration is based upon the MK-41 Vertical Launch System used on our current destroyers and cruisers.  The retrofitted SOL is the one that graces the book’s cover, and the clever reader will note that the Trenton here is the subject of the line drawing gracing the banner of this very site.  The CAD model is not static, either.  Each of the missile hatches, the railgun turrets, and the laser blisters are all built with control axes so they can be rotated, elevated, opened, and fired, which you will see some of in future pics.

As for news, I’ve now got an ISBN for the Kindle version and CreateSpace has approved my latest iteration, from which I’ve ordered three proofs:  one for me, one for my publishing partner, and ONE FOR YOU, details for the giveaway to follow.

Stay tuned!

Getting Ducks in Rows

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First, some eye candy:

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USS Sword of Liberty (DA-1) Blueprint Shot

That is a blueprint-style pic of the first Sword class astrodynamic detroyer, the titular “Sword” from my upcoming military sci-fi novel A Sword Into Darkness.  (I may have mentioned it before).  The pic is from several years ago, a mid-evolution version of the final iteration that graces the cover of the book.  It is VASTLY different from the very first version of the ship, which I imagined up prior to starting the writing process for this story YEARS ago.  That version is one uuuuuuuugly duckling:

Sword of Liberty 5

Ewww.  Just ew.

I’ve gotten to be a better 3D artist over a loooong long time.  If it wasn’t completely self-evident, I’m self-taught from the School of Trial and Error (next door to the School of Hard Knocks — Gooooo, Black and Blue!).  That first pic was cobbled together from the program Bryce.  Since then, I’ve moved on to Maxon’s Cinema 4D, which can be (and has been) used to animate complete films, though I’ve never used it for that.  I just like making pretty spaceships.

In other news, I’ve uploaded what I think will be the final version of the interior file, cover, and web-store description to Amazon’s Createspace site.  As soon as it is approved for use, I’ll finalize it and order a couple of proofs, which I may be giving away, so stay tuned for details.  Today, I’m doing chores for the boss (my lovely wife) and working on the Kindle edition when I can sneak away.  Gotta get all my ducks in a row before the big day on the 31st!  (Don’t worry, I get all the cliches out of my system here so they don’t infect my real writing.  🙂  )

Save The Date! Launching in 5, 4, 3, 2 . . . .

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Friday, January 31, 2014

It’s the end of the month, pay-day for most, and long past the point where your New Year’s resolutions have fallen by the wayside.  It’s cold outside, you’ve burned through your boring holiday reading, and you’re feeling guilty for laying on the couch — expanding your gut instead of your mind.

Why not kill three birds with one stone!?  Expend some of that cash lying fallow in your bank account, challenge your mind, and get your heart racing all at the same time:  get online and purchase A Sword Into Darkness, the rousing debut novel from your Improbable Author, Thomas A. Mays.

Yep, it’s finally here!  We’re shooting for the end of this month for ASID’s Stealth Books launch.  I’ve garnered some great review blurb quotes from some huge names in the marketplace, the back copy is revised, the interior is formatted and proofed, and we’ve even slightly tweaked the cover design.  Assuming the last few processes go well, the book will go live on Amazon.com 31Jan2014.  Available in 6×9 trade paperback for $15.99 or Kindle e-book for $3.99, it will also be part of the KDP Select program.  The e-book will be exclusive to Kindle and Amazon for three months, promoted by Amazon, and AVAILABLE FOR FREE BORROWING IF YOU ARE AN AMAZON PRIME MEMBER.  That’s right, if you have Prime, you can download and read ASID from the Kindle Owner’s Lending Library gratis!  (I still earn royalties when you borrow, it just comes out of the Prime members’ annual dues.)

And that’s not all!  The trade paperback will be available online through whichever bookseller you like, and the e-book will go out on Nook and E-Pub devices in May.  Also in May, we might have some other new announcements, like the debut of an ASID app and tabletop game, as well as an audiobook! (We’ll see how those pan out.)

So, anticipate seeing a bunch of cryptic tweets from me, as well as a few other goodies while I drum up interest in the launch.  What can you do to help?  Share my posts on e-mail, Facebook, Google+, and Twitter.  Share, re-tweet, “Like,” and “Favorite,” all you can.  And then when it comes out, grab a copy, give it a read and then provide me an honest review online.

I CAN’T FREAKIN’ WAIT!!!

Would Anyone Like A Brown Sweater?

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This is not a political or issue-oriented blog in the least, but sometimes you see something so ridiculous that it requires good rant. First, familiarize yourself with the following:

Vaginal Knitting Casting Off My Womb

Now, THAT is one inspirational piece of performance “crafting” — so much so that my own muse has struck! I am now taking orders for my own very personal crafting statement, sweaters quite literally pulled from my own ass.

Some pedestrian minds might judge this art h-arse-ly, thinking it among the crappier of my ideas, butt I shit you not, this is the end-all, be-all statement of my personal philosophy. I’m lettin’ it all hang out!  And not to be too anal about it, but what is that philosophy exactly? Just that writers, like performance artists, are often completely full of it.

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Sophomoric? Indeed, and proudly so. Okay, disclosure time:  I’m just a regularish guy. I understand art, feminism, and knitting all to the same abysmal degree. I don’t get it, and I’m probably not the intended audience for this young womyn’s statement, but I do have a nicely uninformed opinion about it. (After all, like assholes, everybody’s got ’em.) In my opinion her performance piece and all its bloody, scratchy, and not-very-sanitary excess is ludicrous, unnecessary, and quite likely obscures the very issues she is trying to call attention to.

I am not a feminist. That doesn’t mean I don’t understand or empathize with the issues feminists rally around — they just don’t hit me to the point where I would label myself that way or form my life around that label. And that is said as a proud and involved husband and father of two girls (and a son).

The equality of women in the home, workplace, society, and in leadership positions is an important issue still today. The struggle to achieve all the growth we have made in the US and worldwide has been a long and noble one, and my wife and daughters have benefited greatly from the efforts of almost all the self-identified feminists that have come before.

But not all.

I think most would agree that there is a profound difference between feminists who daily battle to eliminate artificially unfair barriers to achievement placed before women — and “feminists” who demonize men, see everything in terms of oppressive patriarchy, or insist that anyone who disagrees with their more extreme views is somehow bewildered or afraid of their lady-parts.

Congratulations, Ms. Jenkins, you have a vagina, similar to approximately half the planet. Your performance art is akin to the proud announcement of my neighbor’s 4 and 5 year-old daughters when they very publicly proclaimed their discovery of the difference between boys and girls. Yes, the vulva is not to be feared. Yes, wondrous, miraculous things can come from your uterus. Yes, menstruation is both a huge imposition no man could comprehend and completely normal at the same time.

But we kinda already knew all that before you turned your va-jay-jay into a yarn cozy.

I’ll grant that your piece (of art) is unique, in that most folks just haven’t thought it a good idea to cram spun sheep hair up their nethers in order to make the world’s worst Christmas gift, but it is also neither profound or revelatory.  You obviously have a great creative flair, but you seemed to have squandered your (possibly) only 15 minutes of fame on either pointing out something completely trite or by combating a straw-man argument against all you deem to be non-feminist.  There are actual injustices committed against women and girls around the world, and there still are real, unfair gender biases against women in our own, more progressive countries, but none of those are because the patriarchs in power don’t understand or fear your plumbing.  By going forward in this manner, you’ve turned a real issue into an object of bafflement, derision, and scorn, hurting her compatriots and giving those who pigeonhole feminism into the crazy femi-nazi stereotype more reasons to stick by their stereotype.  This project is more about you as a shock-jock than about advancing the real cause of feminism.  I would recommend you aim higher on your next “craftivist” project.

Of course, this leads to a more general warning about the labels we wear and the labels we cast upon others.  Anytime you employ a label as a shortcut to refer to either “us” or “them,” you begin circumventing reason.  Whether the labels you employ are “conservative” or “liberal,” “feminist” or “masculist,” you risk allowing the label to define you and those you disagree with rather than their actual words or actions.  Think about this next time you feel compelled to use those labels:  is the term just a convenient verbal shortcut to show a difference in ways of thinking, or is it being used as a filter to disregard any and all arguments employed by the opposite side of the dichotomy (if, in fact, such a dichotomy truly exists).

Hmmm, this sweater’s a lot less brown than I anticipated.  Maybe I’m not completely full of shit.