A Philosophy of Stars – Release Date

A Philosophy Of Stars. © 2024 F. P. Dorchak/Wailing Loon

As things currently stand, A Philosophy of Stars (APoS) will be released May 31, 2024, versus this week. I’d forgotten that the Ingram upload process involves aspects that require folks to wait certain amounts of time. And I will be printing out an actual hardcopy paperback proofing copy to review to make sure all is kosher before releasing it to the world.

After APoS’s trade release, I’ll be releasing an ebook as well. More news on that as time and circumstances permit!

Related Posts

• A Philosophy of Stars
• I’ve Created Two New Literary Terms!

Temporal Discontinuity

Why, you ask, do writers slip in those three asterisks (or similar symbology) into section breaks?

These guys have a great explanation, however I prefer that it’s a temporal obfuscatory implementation.

A Philosophy of Stars

A Philosophy Of Stars. © 2024 F. P. Dorchak/Wailing Loon

NOTE: I updated the cover image to better represent no fire in space. Even thought an argument could be made that the flames were in the planet’s atmosphere…it just didn’t hit the “physics” part of me right. I’m thrilled with this newer version! Now it looks the way I want it!

Here it is, folks! The cover art for my newest novel, A Philosophy of Stars!

I’m so damned excited about this cover! Absolutely love it!

My good friend, Lon Kirschner, did the artwork. He’ll next be working on the spine and back cover.

I’m looking to release this book early next month, so stay tuned!

Two Words

Puma Punku.

I’ve Created Two New Literary Terms!

I think I may have coined a brand-new literary term!

“Chronovel.”

In fact, maybe two terms:

“Novignette.”

What the heck am I talking about?

Well, in going back over the manuscript my agent had returned to me, I wondered if the editors who read it and subsequently passed on it had thought that it might have been a short story collection. But even if that wasn’t the case, I wondered about the structure and format of my manuscript–soon, hopefully, a book–and how to alert readers into the slightly…askew…structure I had taken in creating it.

During a walk it hit me: Chronovel. Novignette!

In writing this post, I found that there is a similar term, that already exits, called a “fix-up” or “fixup” novel. These are stand-alone short stories that were “fixed up” in order to be fit into a novel.

This is not what I did.

On January 29, 2024, at 8:20 a.m. (Mountain Time), I e-mailed my agent the following that I had added into the Front Matter of the manuscript:

“I loved the theme, the structure, the imagination of The Martian Chronicles (TMC) so much that I’d wanted to try my hand at a work of similar construction. This is that effort. I am terming it a ‘chronovel,’ which is a combination of ‘chronicle’ (Merriam-Webster: ‘a historical account of events arranged in order of time usually without analysis or interpretation’) and ‘novel’ (‘an invented prose narrative . . . ‘). These are not intended as individual short stories, but as a constructed ‘chronicle of events’ involving vignettes (perhaps also a ‘novignette‘?) and a common plot, as is the structure of TMC. Unlike TMC, however, all of these works were intentionally created with encyclopedic intent. There is much intentionally left to the imagination between each work, as well as much portrayed within each work.”

I did some browser searches on my terms and nothing had come up, so I feel that I am the first to coin these two terms. These two terms are used when intentionally creating stories in a “chronicle form” to fit into an intentionally created novel. They are intentional vignettes intentionally stitched together in the form of a novel. There is nothing accidental nor haphazard about them. Think of it as diary entries from Life showing the high and low points of Life, but not every little, expanded, fleshed-out scene, as most novels try to do.

So, I am here, for the record, recording my creation of these terms!

Feel free to use as appropriate, while giving proper attribution!

 

COSine 2024 – After-Action Report

COSine 2024 Signs. (Image, not the Signs themselves, © 2024, F. P. Dorchak)

Last weekend I attended my fourth COSine conference. My schedule had been the following:

• Sat 9 a.m., Main Events: Give Yourself Permission to Suck
• Sat 2 p.m., Lobby Nook: Encouraging Advice for Artists and Writers
• Sat 5:30 p.m., Atrium: Author Signing

Both of my panels had been wonderfully moderated and done, and the author signing had two really fun moments, which I’ll get to in a little (with lots of pictures).

COSine 2024 Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream! (Image, not the Ice Cream, © 2024, F. P. Dorchak)

Give Yourself Permission to Suck

This panel was about allowing yourself to just be who you are and write as the writer you are now. Many can get frozen at “not being good enough.” Don’t worry about it. Just write. Our moderator had some really great questions, none of which I remember. But trust me, they were good and she did an great job moderating.

Encouraging Advice for Artists and Writers

This was a lobby “round table” discussion of artists and writers (who, really, are also “artists” of the written word) who helped out those in need of advice and encouragement. We had two young girls who were in need of lots of assistance, so we all put in our two-cents of advice, and wow, the girl wrote everything down! She and her friend were both appreciative. It was a fun round table.

Author Signing

COSine 2024 Who Else Books…Some of My Books! (© 2024, F. P. Dorchak)

Well, this was interesting! After I’d set up and prepared for the opening to the public, Nina (pronounced “NINE-ah”), co-owner of Who Else Books with her husband, Ron (pronounced “RON”), who is pictured to the left, above, came over and told me that she’d sold “a couple of” my books! Who Else Books stocks books of the attending writers at the cons. They’re such a sweet couple and they help out tremendously by taking up this mantle. Anyway, after chatting for a few with Nina, and the public filtering in, a lady soon approached me with one of those sold books (Do The Dead Dream?)! This lady was so cool and she told me a few things that really made my day! She said that “…I am her generation…” and that “…I should keep on writing.” She was very intent as she told me these things. It was…weird…but very cool.

I thought, man, what an interesting thing to say, that last one! She must have either read my blogs or I must’ve said something on one of my panels (which I know I had, but I’m no longer sure exactly what I said…cons are like that…). But it wasn’t just this, but that this lady was my first-ever “in-the-wild” human to buy one of my books elsewhere…then later seek me out for an autograph!

Wow.

Okay, here are (in no particular order), shots from the author signing: a bunch of people, a couple of Kevins, a few Shannons, more people, illuminated water, a Michael, a John and Karen Stith, A few Lous (trying to pay me off), a robot, more illuminated water, and a me or two…

COSine 2024 Author Signing. (© 2024, F. P. Dorchak)

Kevin Ikenberry & Company! COSine 2024 Author Signing. (© 2024, F. P. Dorchak)

Two Of My Favorite People! John and Karen Stith. John Is Holding His Book That Is On It’s Way Into A Film! COSine 2024 Author Signing. (© 2024, F. P. Dorchak)

Patrick Smythe and Moi. COSine 2024 Author Signing. (© 2024, F. P. Dorchak)

Lou Berger Being Lou Berger! Yes, He Gave Permission To Use These. COSine 2024 Author Signing. (© 2024, F. P. Dorchak)

Lou Berger Being Lou Berger! Yes, He STILL Gave Permission To Use These. COSine 2024 Author Signing. (© 2024, F. P. Dorchak)

Lou Berger Finally Trying To Pay Me Off To Leave Him Alone. I took The Money…And Stayed. COSine 2024 Author Signing. (© 2024, F. P. Dorchak)

Makerspace Robot. Forgot Its Name. COSine 2024 Author Signing. (© 2024, F. P. Dorchak)

Cool Illuminated Water Behind Me. COSine 2024 Author Signing. (© 2024, F. P. Dorchak)

Cool Illuminated Water Still Behind Me. COSine 2024 Author Signing. (© 2024, F. P. Dorchak)

Shannon Lawrence! We Took “Stalky” Photos of Each Other and Sent Them to Each Other. We Sat Kattycorner From Each Other. COSine 2024 Author Signing. (© 2024, F. P. Dorchak)

Shannon Lawrence. COSine 2024 Author Signing. (© 2024, F. P. Dorchak)

Shannon And I Took “Stalky” Photos of Each Other and Sent Them To Each Other. We Sat Kattycorner From Each Other. COSine 2024 Author Signing. (© 2024, F. P. Dorchak)

Shannon’s Stalky Image of Me! Oddly, I Was Texting Her That Image Above When She Took This! Allegedly. COSine 2024 Author Signing. (© 2024, F. P. Dorchak)

There was another round table, called Graveyards Appeal. That was a fun “panel” that talked about (surprise) the appeal of graveyards. My friend, Patrick Smythe, found a cool list of what all the gravestone symbols mean. That was neat. Here’s the link. Here’s also a hand-jammed listing of that link:

Graveyards Appeal Roundtable, Lobby. Graveyard Symbol Meanings. COSine 2024.

Graveyards Appeal Roundtable, Lobby. Graveyard Symbol Meanings. COSine 2024.

More images from the con:

COSine 2024 Hard Sci-Fi Panel. COSine 2024 (© 2024, F. P. Dorchak)

COSine 2024 Military Fiction Panel. COSine 2024 (© 2024, F. P. Dorchak)

COSine 2024 Back To The Moon Panel. COSine 2024 (© 2024, F. P. Dorchak)

Steve Leininger

This was pretty cool! The engineer who developed the first Tandy, TRS-80, computer (in 1977) was there!  My first computer was a Tandy. Steve is retired, but, like me, has plenty of things to do, one of which is a board member of Pikes Peak Makerspace, in Colorado Springs (“Walk in with an idea, walk out with it in your hand“). From their web page:

“Pikes Peak Makerspace is a community of cooperative hobbyists and early-stage entrepreneurs that empowers members to turn ideas into reality. We strive to provide access to tools and resources to confidently and safely design, develop, and make.”

I find this exceedingly cool! Check them out! But what was funny was that they made fun of the TRS-80 as “I used to be famous!”

In Conclusion

Overall a fun and cozy con! So many good people. Met some new ones. It’s a wonderful con, run by wonderful folks, who give up so much of their time and bend over backwards to help everyone and do the right thing. When I’d realized I’d never received the e-mail for getting on these panels this past summer, due to a glitch, and further, because of medical issues I was going through at the time, I hadn’t noticed it until, like, December, Arlen Feldman immediately did his best to squeeze me in and got me on the above-listed panels. I couldn’t thank him enough. Thanks, man. The other members of the COSine Board are Morland Gonsoulin, Karen Jordan, and Eli Roa–thank you all (including all the other volunteers!) for all that all did to get this con up and running!

Steve Leininger And Karen Jordan. Closing Ceremonies, COSine 2024. (© 2024, F. P. Dorchak)

Closing Ceremonies. COSine 2024. (© 2024, F. P. Dorchak)

Closing Ceremonies. COSine 2024. (© 2024, F. P. Dorchak)

Thanks for stopping by!

Previous COSine Posts

• COSine 2024
• COSine 2023 After-Action Report
• COSine 2023
• COSine 2022 – A View From Behind The Mask
• Explaining The Pandemic to Your Future Self – In Six Easy Parts
• 2022 COSine Convention
• My First COSine 2020
• COSine 2020

Previous MileHiCon Posts

• MileHiCon54 – A Look Back
• Ed Bryant, Jr. — A Tribute
• MileHiCon54
• MileHiCon52
• MileHiCon52 – Virtual – A Success!
• MileHiCon52 – Virtual – October 23-24-25, 2020
• MileHiCon51 Tomorrow
• Going To MILEHICON51
• MileHiCon50 – An After-Action Report
• Follow My MileHiCon50 Instagram!
• Heading up To MileHiCon50!
• My MileHiCon50 Itinerary
• I’m Heading to MileHiCon50!
• MileHiCon48
• MileHiCon47, a Knot, and a Head
• MileHiCon 46…or This Blog is Really All About Aaron Michael Ritchey

I’m Surprisingly Okay

I couldn’t leave my last post as it was. After having had the insulting, exhausted, mixed feelings of being ignored by New York City Publishing, I came back the next day, well, rather exited! Thank you to all who left comments here and on Facebook. I greatly appreciate your support, I sincerely do.

As I was writing up panel content for the upcoming COSine 2024 this weekend (and before I received my agent’s words), I’d written about how I’d missed some of my “Halcyon Days” as that writer in my 20s. Where I just wrote what I wrote and publishing be damned.

Well, I seem to be kinda back in the came position. I can now write without worrying about how Publishing is going to chew me up and spit me out. And I like that. I can continue to do what I’ve been doing: publishing what I like to write and not worrying about fitting my work into their limited genre holes. Create my own covers–well get a cover artist (my most talented friend, Lon Kirschner) to do that–but I get to approve or disprove. If no one buys what I write, I also discovered the next day, so what? I really love the stories I write or I wouldn’t pub them. It is what it is, and I have to roll with it, and now can put out two more books in a more reasonable time than two to four years.

And, as I’ve said, I’m an eternal optimist.

So, yes, I’m psyched. I’m okay. Throat punches or no.

Previous Related Posts

• Calling it Quits

Calling it “Quits”

Even though I’ve been fighting with this decision the past two years, my agent made the decision easier for me today: she had to drop my manuscript (ms) with her. She’s sent it to all of the legit houses, even their imprints, and though many haven’t responded back, that’s the hint: no interest. As for my Work in Progress (WIP), she’s passing on that, too. If she can’t seem to sell [all] my [other] work, why would she take on still more of it? I write Out of The Box, and that’s not what Big Publishing wants. End of story. I don’t blame her in the least. It’s a business decision, and I was “this close” to pulling it from her, now, anyway! If she hadn’t placed it this year, I was going to pull it from her. We were on the same page.

So, I’m going into HOBBY status. The IRS calls it “Hobby Loss.”

I don’t even know if I’ll write any of it off, to tell you the truth. I’m just tired of it all. Banging my head against the same, unyielding wall. Unless a miracle happens, I’m terminating a desire to make money off this business. If I can get around to working on a piece, I’ll work on it, but a lifetime of intentionally carving out alone time with no returns is exhausting and taxes relationships and my sense of optimism. Energy. My wife has been more than a good sport during all this, but I’ve got nothing left. Life has continued to give me hints that I’ve continually ignored. I used to believe the old adages that persistence pays off, but no longer believe that. I’ve been doing this since I was six years old. I’m 63. The arithmetic is 57 years.

Enough is enough.

Not saying I’m giving up writing in toto, just that, giving up on the dream of global readership of my work. I’ll put out a self-published book WHEN I DO, and that’ll be that. No fanfare. No Big Publishing schedules of Does and Don’ts.

Just a book.

If I do. You can count on at least one more book from me, because of my current WIP, but after that I don’t promise anything.

To be honest, yes I’m a little hurt, even insulted by the Publishing industry. My work is every bit as good or bad as every other book out there, and to have been so overlooked for other stories that are trite, generic, or downright dumb, is insulting. My writing is intelligent. Has depth. To read some of the actual words editors used in rejections is insulting. The editorial arrogance I get from some of these “young kids”…well, there’s a lot I could say, but I just hope that the Zen “turnabout is fair play” swings into action, once they get along in life. I thought I could pile-drive through it all out, but I’m tired.

No more agents.

No more publishers.

If one comes to me, fine, I’ll listen (you better have a better-than-average, mind-blowing deal), but I’m not going to them. I’ll take my 5 1/2 fans and move on.

Thank you to all who actually took the time and effort to read my work and either wrote reviews, passed my work on to others, or talked it up. Just reading it is fine. I’m an acquired taste. A rarified one. And I’m proud of it. I’ve always written my work in a way to make others THINK. Apparently that’s in short supply these days.

As to continuing to post here?

Not sure. I only created this blog for my writing. We’ll just have to wait and see if I have anything worth saying. But thanks to all of my followers on this and my other blog site (which I may devote more time to)! In any event I need to go lick my wounds and regroup.

To the one musician who once asked me what was so wrong in just writing for myself?

Well, musician, how would you feel in just playing to yourself?

 

COSine 2024

COSine 2024 (© COSine/Rocket Square. Used with permission from FFF)

Next weekend (Jan 19 – 21, 2024) I am attending COSine 2024 in Colorado Springs. My panel schedule is as follows:

• Sat 9 a.m., Main Events: Give Yourself Permission to Suck
• Sat 2 p.m., Lobby Nook: Encouraging Advice for Artists and Writers
• Sat 5:30 p.m., Atrium: Author Signing

It is held at the Embassy Suites, by Hilton, at 7290 Commerce Center Dr, Colorado Springs, CO 80919.

Here are the con’s policies.

The term “COSine” is a pun merging the Colorado Springs Airport code, “COS,” with the mathematical term, “cosine” (which is the ratio of the adjacent side of a right-triangle to the hypotenuse).

This will be my fourth COSine attendance.

Previous COSine Posts

• COSine 2023 After-Action Report
• COSine 2023
• COSine 2022 – A View From Behind The Mask
• Explaining The Pandemic to Your Future Self – In Six Easy Parts
• 2022 COSine Convention
• My First COSine 2020
• COSine 2020

Previous MileHiCon Posts

• MileHiCon54 – A Look Back
• Ed Bryant, Jr. — A Tribute
• MileHiCon54
• MileHiCon52
• MileHiCon52 – Virtual – A Success!
• MileHiCon52 – Virtual – October 23-24-25, 2020
• MileHiCon51 Tomorrow
• Going To MILEHICON51
• MileHiCon50 – An After-Action Report
• Follow My MileHiCon50 Instagram!
• Heading up To MileHiCon50!
• My MileHiCon50 Itinerary
• I’m Heading to MileHiCon50!
• MileHiCon48
• MileHiCon47, a Knot, and a Head
• MileHiCon 46…or This Blog is Really All About Aaron Michael Ritchey

From The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, by John Koenig. (© 2021, Simon & Schuster)

I received The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows for Christmas, and absolutely love it.

It’s a little book with a huge personality.

It’s powerful in its scope.

It explains so much, even gives…substantiality to…many of the odd feelings I have and have had over the course of my life.

The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows (TDoOS) is a project by John Koenig. His incredible book coins and defines neologisms for emotions that just haven’t had any concrete descriptions in our language, perhaps in most languages. All neologisms are created by Koenig through an exhaustive etymological research, as well as an analysis of the meanings of prefixes, suffixes, and word roots. The listed terms are often based on “feelings of existentialism” and are meant to “fill a hole in the language” that has, curiously, also involved reader input! How cool is that? His project/dictionary started out as a website and YouTube Channel (YTC), but ended up as a book—which is great, because I’m just not into watching videos and love reference books.

Plus, it’s a book and not just digital.

I much prefer to read faster than a video plays out. Herr Koenig’s site includes entries like a regular dictionary, while the YTC attempts to visually express these meanings (cause, you know, that’s what YouTube does…). Some of his videos involve large collages of photographs (e.g., “Vemödalen” which uses an almost exhausting, seamless, fusion of hundreds of similar photographs from multiple photographers). Others involve collages from his own life (e.g.,  “Avenoir“).

Wikipedia says the YTC tries to do this “more thoroughly,” which I initially find tritely generational in description and should probably be included in his book, if it already isn’t, but as I view his videos…holy cow…how utterly powerful they are…how they freaking effect me. Grab me by my soul and even cause me to tear up, in some circumstances. It’s like I’m viewing my own life on video.

In watching videos versus reading words there is not only the employment of words and visuals…there’s the employment of tone. The narrator’s voice. How it is inflected, how s/he adds emotion to his words. There is much that is added by the proper narrator. John is voice actor and man, does he nail it. This is one guy I really, really want to meet. In person.

So, TDoOS takes from both platforms and employs both dictionary and essay styles.

I love what this project has done, and how it’s done, because not only does it gives me new and cooler—powerfully, effectually, atmospheric—words to employ in my writing, but that it also shows that I’m not alone in these obtuse, obscure, even metaphysical feelings:

• kenopsia
• dès vu
• nodus tollens

I’ve had and have many of these feelings across the timespan of my life.

Maybe there’s a term’s for that, too.