"See your memories." by Michael E. Gonzales

I received one of those “See your memories” notices from facebook this morning.

“Three years ago…” and it displayed one of my early “art” works I used to advertise my first published book, Dark Moon Rising.

Three years and a few months ago I was just a guy writing in his spare time. A suggestion was offered that I might find writing cathartic. I had tried my hand at writing while still on active duty in the Army. As you might imagine an Army officer has very little spare time for any pursuit outside of his normal required duties.

Additionally, I wrote by hand, on paper, with a pen. Imagine.

Needless to say, that poor attempt was worthless, but I did enjoy it.

When I started writing again, I tried writing a fictional story set in WWII, drawing heavily on my own experience which, it turned out, was not a good idea.

That partially completed eight-thousand-word manuscript still exists, but it’s on a floppy disk and so lost to the world…thank heavens.

Sometime later I took my then young son to a science-fiction movie he wanted to see. The story concept was a good one but the movie was terrible. I thought to myself as we left the theatre, I could write that story better than that!

So, I put my computer where my big mouth is and sat down and did just that. I showed the completed work to friends who are sci-fi fans, and one fellow who’s a hard core “Trekkie.”

Every one of them said they really liked it, but I had a lot of punctuation errors and more than a few spelling mistakes.

Well, I started to generate stories and commit them to digital paper.

After I’d written over twenty stories a friend suggested I submit one to a publisher. I blew that Idea off. But, it sat, fermenting in my mind.

So, I started reading up on how to get published. I read all I could about query letters. I found gobs of Sci-Fi publishers who accepted these letters from unproven writers and started sending them out to all I could identify.

A couple actually asked to see the first three chapters. However, all ended up send me nice, boilerplate, rejection letters (I’ve kept them all).

Then by a happy circumstance I met Cheryl. I was only told that she used to be an editor and perhaps she could give me some advice.

We met one lovely afternoon for lunch. And we chatted for over two hours. She did indeed have great advice for me! I wrote it all down (still have the notes).

She asked that I send her my first chapter and she’d look it over.

After a few days she sent an email suggesting I get the manuscript professionally edited then send her the complete document.

After I learned what the editing was going to cost, I almost decided to let the entire matter drop.

        It was my wife who encouraged me and pushed me over the edge.

Once the editing was done, I sent the manuscript to Cheryl, all the while hoping I’d get it back loaded with advice and suggestions on how to improve my writing.

Some two or three weeks later I received an email from Cheryl explaining that she was with Prairie Rose Publications and offered me a contract.

I can’t begin to describe the since of surrealism that engulfed me at that moment.

I had to read the email and the contract twice more, then, I ran screaming out of the den looking for my wife to show the message to her.

“Are we reading the same thing?” I asked her.

Well…three years later and I have five books on the market, and a sixth awaiting publication.

With each published book I still get the same feeling, the same butterflies, as I did with the first.

And when I pick up any of them off my bookshelf and see my name on the cover it’s still surrealistic.

Was it fate, synchronicity, luck? I don’t know, may never know. But I do know that I owe a debt to Cheryl and the lovely people at Firestar Press who rolled the dice on me.

Thank you.

My Website - http://www.mikegonzalesauthor.com/

Facebook -https://www.facebook.com/people/Michael-Gonzales/100010275572869

The other page on Facebook -https://www.facebook.com/GONZOfiction/?pnref=lhc

Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/Michael-E-Gonzales/e/B01CRR80RS

Publisher -http://prairierosepublications.com/authors_2/michael-e-gonzales/

Fire Star Press Blogspot -http://firestarpress.blogspot.com/

Waxing poetic by Michael E. Gonzales

        Allow me to “wax poetic.”

Which of course means to use flowery or expressive language to describe a relatively mundane topic, or use heightened, formal language to communicate a simple thought.

I’m in the middle of writing a story that, when the idea first popped into my head, sounded great!

The outline looked good as well. But as I began to tell the story and to ensure my twists twisted and plotholes weren’t bottomless that “thing” happened; I call it … mission drift.

Somewhere between my brain and my fingertips the story branched off.

The blank page became a swirling haze as the story loomed up out of the abyss and was illuminated by the light of foreboding imagination. Visible before me was a labyrinth of paths so vast as to befuddle the mind of the most indefatigable sage.

Within the mists the events of the outline conflicted with the ever-active imagination. In that instant, as if from a flash of lightning,

was shown the dark tunnel down which the story was hurtling toward a future of pain, misery, confusion, and the slow tedious process of rewriting.

This cloudy road quickly forked, then forked again, and yet again — for neither imagination nor storyline now follow a straight line.

There is always hope for any manuscript.

But hope, in perpetuum, is opposed by evil, and so it is in the mind of this writer. The ruby flames and blood red demons of ubiquitous malevolence threatened even now to consign the manuscript to the dark,

irretrievable depths of the rubbish bin.

The time spent in research, the hours pounding at the keys till my fingertips bleed, the gallons of coffee and the sleepless nights, all for naught.

By the glow of my monitor I gaze out into a darkened room, the only sound the pitiless ticking of the clock. I am loathed to surrender to the demons, so I turn to the better angels of my mind and plead for help.

The answer I knew before I asked. It came to the forefront of my mind as a hard and painful slap with a mailed fist…

“Work harder, ya fool, and quit whining!”

I am reminded of the famous quote:

 Please follow me, I know where I'm going!

Website - http://www.mikegonzalesauthor.com/

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/people/Michael-Gonzales/100010275572869

The other page on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/GONZOfiction/?pnref=lhc

Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/Michael-E-Gonzales/e/B01CRR80RS

Publisher - http://prairierosepublications.com/authors_2/michael-e-gonzales/

Fire Star Press Blogspot - http://firestarpress.blogspot.com/

Come Blow yer Horn! By Michael E. Gonzales

It’s been said that if you don’t blow yer own horn, no one will blow it for ya. 

With that said, I'm happy to report that friends who have read my latest release, The Blue of Antyllus, tell me it’s my best work so far.

The Blue of Antyllus is a blending of science-fiction and the fantastic. A story of war and heart-rending desperation.

Amidst the treachery and blood shed, or perhaps despite it, love takes root but is severely tested. Some will live, some will die. But that is the nature of war, and as always it tests which is stronger, war or love.

I hope my friends are right about Antyllus, for I have many more stories in the offing. Indeed, I shall next lay before you a tale from eons past, from a world where dragons and witches are still a worrisome thing.

A story from a kingdom where evil has vanquished good and a lone, aged knight is faced with usurpers, betrayal, conjurers, dragons, and bands of ruthless cutthroats.

The knight summons all his strength to help the people of a village where the children vanish, one by one.

Little does he know where his crusade will lead him.

The dark ages were never this dark.

Please visit my Web Site:  http://www.mikegonzalesauthor.com/home.html

And follow me on Face Book:  https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100010275572869

* * * * * *

Dark Moon Rising, Battle of Broken Moon, Across a Sea of Star, The Vampires of Antyllus, Action, Action Adventure, Alien worlds, Aliens, battle, Dark Moon Rising, FireStarPress, Michael E. Gonzales, mikegonzalesauthor.com, NewRelease, Romance,science fiction, syfy

Experience By Michael E. Gonzales

I started writing a new story that takes place back in 1899, and not because I’m infatuated with 1899 but because it places by characters in the time I need them in to match both historical events and events as written by another, and very famous, writer of science fiction from the genre’s early beginnings.

Next, I have to get them to a very specific location. This will by necessity require me to write about travel. I’m fortunate in that in my life I have traveled a great deal. This provides me some insight. And better yet I have traveled on a ship, which if your traveling about the world in 1899 there is pretty much only horses, trains, and ships to get around on (there were a few automobiles but very, very few).

My characters will have to traverse rugged mountainous terrain as well and dense forests in rolling hills. Yup, you guessed it…I’ve been there, done that.

“Okay, Mike, nuf bragg’n what’s yer point?”

Point is, every writer must draw on what they know and what they have experienced. Does this mean if you haven’t walked twenty-five miles in a day through a forest where the temperature is twenty-two degrees that you can’t write about it? Well, of course not.

First, what I do, is remember a time when I was once bone tired but knew I had to push on. After a hard day at the office ya got one last stop at the store, drag yourself through the isles to get what you need to go home and cook dinner!

Remember when you were last out in very cold weather for a longish time, remember shivering against the cold, pulling your collar up, burying your hand deep in your pockets.

Remember strolling through a fairy tale forest (or seeing a movie set in a fairy tale forest).

Next, I roll up all those memories, extrapolate (a highfalutin word meaning to deduce or guess) and then, here’s the hard part, see yourself dead tired in a freezing wood with miles to go before you sleep.

Again, I realize I’m preaching to the choir here and I know that very likely every one of you has a different method to achieve this same goal. And I am also aware that there are some of you who when describing walking dead tired in a freezing wood with miles of path ahead―have actually done that (you poor thing, you!).

It can be even more difficult if your having to describe events on an alien world, or in the weightless environment of space (and no, I’ve not been into space―yet).

It’s been said countless time, “there is no substitute for experience,” and that is so true, particularly for writers. The big difference is that for everyone else experience is something to draw on to improve some aspect of your life, but a writer has to have the ability to describe that experience in the most vivid and emotional manner possible.

You write about the death of a beloved character in your story. As painful as it might be, recall the death of a friend, a parent, a loved one. Bring up all the pain that you spent years suppressing and pour your tears onto the page. Hold nothing back.

If it doesn’t make you cry, neither will it your reader.

One of the most difficult things I have experienced about writing is the pain of vomiting up old memories, and the struggle to put that pain on paper.

If done well, you will know the joy of having written something people, hopefully, will want to read while at the same time experiencing your own cathartic event.
                                   Just keep writing! 

Please visit my Web Site:  http://www.mikegonzalesauthor.com/home.html

And follow me on Face Book:  https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100010275572869

Dark Moon Rising, Battle of Broken Moon, Across a Sea of Star, The Vampires of Antyllus, Action, Action Adventure, Alien worlds, Aliens, battle, Dark Moon Rising, FireStarPress, Michael E. Gonzales, mikegonzalesauthor.com, NewRelease, Romance,science fiction, syfy

Building a world - by Michael E. Gonzales

Building a world.

I have received several compliments on the “worlds” I have built for my story and characters to live in.

“Mike, how do you do it?”

Well, first it should be known that I read a lot of books, and articles on the internet, about writing in general, and world building specifically.

But, of course it all has to start in the mind. For me, I must see every detail come to life. The dark void in my mind must fill with the visuals in extreme detail.  I sit and imagine the set where my drama will play out. I close my eyes and see the places where my adventure will occur.

Latter, I’ll go on line, find images that look as I see them and then, in photoshop I alter them to better resemble my invented locals. I do this to assist me in visualization and thus description.

But eventually you have to put it all down on paper.

A general map of the entire planet (if your going all over it) or just the area of the world where your story unfolds. Mountains, lakes, streams, rivers, seas, and of course the cities and towns, and give a name to each.

If the story takes place in just one town, you need to draw out the city plan, mark the important structures, and give a name to every street. The same is true for the larger world, even if you don’t plan to use these details go on and name the lakes, streams, rivers, and adjacent habitations. Determine the distances between the locations.

All this will aid you in maintaining consistency and continuity in your story.

Worlds, even those in science fiction and fantasy have more to them than just terrain features. You must consider the flora and fauna. If the world is…other worldly, then you must dream up plants and animals that fit your world.

For example, in The Vampires of Antyllus the planet orbits a red star binary system and the planet is smaller than Earth. These two facts dictate a lot about the flora and fauna. Red stars (the most plentiful type of star in the galaxy) do not put out as much light as our own sun and in a different wavelength.  So, day time on Antyllus will be just a tad brighter than twilight. This means the plants will be darker in color. Shades of dark blue, mostly, but also black, burnt orange, deep red, these colors will absorb more of the stars energy which is necessary for photosynthesis.

The trees, generally, will be taller, due to the low gravity (smaller planet, remember?) and so will the animal life, they will be bigger, stronger, meaner.

 This applies to the anthropoid life as well.

Let’s call the anthropoids “people”. These people will have their own civilization, their own culture, their own religion. It’s really important that you invent and detail all of this.

And of course, the people from Earth are not living in our “universe”. The civilization and culture they live in will not be that which we are familiar with. So, this is where you must employ a bit of speculative fiction, and guess either about the future, or invent a new Earth culture from the ground up.

Create as much detail as you can before your start. However, as we all know, things happen as you write, new places and things spring forth from your fertile imagination that might just change the course of your story. When this happens, go to your records and to your map and make note of the new additions.

As for the stuff you don’t use, it’s okay, leave it be. You might have call to reference those notes in the future.

For me world building is not only critical, but a great deal of fun as well. On your first draft, go crazy, you can always readdress it later.

With your pen, or your computer, you can wield the power of creation!

Please visit my Web Site:  http://www.mikegonzalesauthor.com/home.html

And follow me on Face Book:  https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100010275572869

Thank you!

 Dark Moon Rising, Battle of Broken Moon, Across a Sea of Star, The Vampires of Antyllus, Action, Action Adventure, Alien worlds, Aliens, battle, Dark Moon Rising, FireStarPress, Michael E. Gonzales, mikegonzalesauthor.com, NewRelease, Romance,science fiction, syfy

How my dog helps me write. Michael E. Gonzales

On the 5^th of this month the fourth book in my series, The Unborn Galaxy, will be released. Number four, still very exciting. I hope the thrill of a new release never gets old.

This forth book will take those who have been following the many adventures spawned on JILL, the Joint International Lunar laboratory, far, far from the Earth's solitary satellite.

A distant world in orbit around a binary red star set, light years away, holds the promise of humanity’s future. It also contains a deadly secret that unleashes the worst of all greed and the unthinkable—those who would kill for blood.

When Lieutenant Colonel Kathy Selina is offered the choice to relocate to the Antyllus colony, she hardly has a choice.  The military has not only training and time invested in her, but she’s also been given a new SUB body to defeat the deadly disease that would have killed her, as a human.  Kathy, along with her executive officer, Major Dave Mitchel, a handful of SUBs, and the members of the Colony Defense Force, must pit their skills and abilities against the most malevolent enemy the universe has ever faced.

Failure will mean a terrible end for the planet’s native inhabitants, those who’ve come to colonize Antyllus, and certain death for the small cadre of defenders, as well. In a deadly game of cat-and-mouse, how can Kathy, Dave, and their band of soldiers defend an entire world against THE VAMPIRES OF ANTYLLUS?

“Mike, where do you come up with this sh― ah…stuff?” Friends frequently ask me. Well, there are many sources of inspiration. My dog is one of them.

We are a Doberman family. Our dog, Sarge, is a dark chocolate color, he a flop eared and he is a beloved member of our family.

Dobermans get a bad rap as vicious. This would only be true of our Sarge if he thought someone were threatening or hurting a member of his pack.

With us and our friends he’s a real sweetheart. And we just love him.

A month or so ago I wanted to start a new story could not think of anything to write.

I had been watching Sarge play “ring” with Max, our son (Sarge’s brother), then watched him sleep on Max’s lap. Later he came into the den to keep me company.

The TV was on and I noted that with certain sounds emanating from the set he would alert. Doorbells, dogs barking, and gun shots.

I smiled at him and thought to myself, My hero.

It was then that my imagination kicked in, and I began to visualize Sarge as a superhero.

That made me laugh.

Then I started to see him in many guises. As a soldier I saw him, rifle in hand, prepared to do battle with Zombie dogs! He is victorious and returns home an American Hero!

As an Astronaut he journeys into deepest space seeking out new worlds and new life, boldly going where no Doberman has gone before!

Perhaps on another planet he discovers alien Dobies!

And has to deploy robotic drones to keep them at bay!

Well, I never incorporated any of those daydreams into a story, but he sure helps stir up the creative juices. Perhaps the world is ready for a superhero dog? Ah, now I think about it, it’s been done. Of course, not with a Doberman!

The one thing I can say for sure…he is a lover.

Doberman Pinschers eat a lot. They are a large breed dog. If you love dogs as much as I do you’d hate to see one go hungry, so please purchase a copy of my new novel, “The Vampires of Antyllus,” a story he did donate a little inspiration too.

Thanks, ya’ll.

My Web Site:  http://www.mikegonzalesauthor.com/home.html

Please follow me on Face Book:  https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100010275572869

Self-aggrandizement by Michael E. Gonzales

Ah, May. The month of my birth, but enough painful reminders.

A friend of mine, a former Special Forces NCO, (all my friends are veterans…hmm)

is today an outstanding professional photographer. He has offered to take a headshot of me for use on the back cover of my books.

As intriguing as that thought was, at first, I began to struggle with two thoughts. What if younger readers turn the book over and see a gray haired old guy.

Might that not cause them to turn away from my literary offering?

The second hits me a bit harder.

The thought of self-aggrandizement.

Some would say that is the very essence of advertising.

I don’t agree, my advertisements promote the novels, not the author.

The same with using quotes from your reviews. Is it really cool for an author to do that? Might not the reader conclude that the author has only selected the positive comments?

Example: a recent comment reads, “If you like to sleep then DON’T buy this book. It will keep you up at nights until you're finished.”

And platitudes like, “One of the best science fiction stories I have ever read! Non-stop heart pounding action from beginning to end!”

I mean…that stuff makes me blush.

And come on, a review like, “Fantastic story! Well written. Reminds me of the greats of the golden age of science fiction.”

Really? The greats…WOW. I am so humbled! (And I mean that, now!)

It’s one thing to read these things in the privacy of one’s own study, but to know they are out there for anyone to read, well―

And then a fan goes as far as to suggest: “His descriptions, at every turn, places you on the moon and in the room as the main characters struggle for survival. Intrigue permeates this novel as we are introduced to AI and aliens in a way that brings this story to life. I am excited about the next book and can't wait to see this sci-fi series in IMAX Technicolor.

IMAX? I truly feel that is going way overboard. Regular old 3-D will be just fine. No, really. (And not to put too fine a point on it, but…what’s not shot in technicolor anymore?)

At the same time, an astute observer will find hints to tell him what he’s doing right, and what he needs to improve on, “I feared a non-techie, such as myself, might get lost in scientific techno speak, but not so; there was just enough to explain what was going on, I didn’t feel overwhelmed by it.”

And of course, there are areas that need improvement… “I have never been a science fiction person, however, half way through this book I am already excited to read the rest of the series!” 

Half way? I certainly should have grabbed her far earlier than that!

Then, as we all know, come the personal attacks. One critic started with, “The world of science fiction authors and readers will welcome new author Michael Gonzales.” And with that the writer went on to accuse me of being a “world builder!”

I want to make it quite clear, right now, I have absolutely no political aspirations…none!

So, in conclusion, I feel I shall have to achieve considerably more fame before I post pictures of myself or stoop to quoting from reviews of my work in public forums.

I thank you,

Mike

(All quotes in this bit of protracted rambling can be found on my Amazon site. https://www.amazon.com/product-reviews/1540645681/ ).

And while your there, do feel free to purchase any or all of my novels.

My Web Site:  http://www.mikegonzalesauthor.com/home.html

Please follow me on Face Book:  https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100010275572869

Labels: Across a Sea of Star, Action, Action Adventure, Alien worlds, Aliens, battle, Dark Moon Rising, Michael E. Gonzales, mikegonzalesauthor.com, Romance, science fiction, syfy, FireStarPress, NewRelease, Across a Sea of Star, Action, Action Adventure, Adventure, Alien woman, Alien worlds, Aliens, Magic, Prairie Rose Pub, robots, Romance, science fiction, Space Opera, witches and wizards