Celebrating 7 billion souls on planet Earth...

I'm celebrating the 7 billionth soul on planet Earth with 100%-off coupons for "Scat", from now till 7 billion + 1, due 31 October.

Email me for the coupon code at jimsgraham@hotmail.com

Cheers

Jim

'Scat' is out of the bag...

'Scat's for sale from https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/95221 for a cool USD1.99

Being formated for distribution through Amazon, Sony, Barnes & Noble. Will update as and when they're available.

The price of a book...

The other day I sent a pre-publication copy of the book to a fellow dog walker. Today he flagged me down. I thought he was going to tell me he'd been too busy to read it - this is, after all, Hong Kong. Apparently not. He loved it. "Real page turner," "Great twists," "Not like other SciFi" "Really good read". "Loved the short chapters." (meaning he could break away to get some work done!) We got chatting about it. I forgot I was walking my dogs. Almost lost Rocky again. Maybe USD1.99 is a fair price after all.

Another friend told me not to kill Petroff. But Scat's telling me I've been holding him back for too long. He wants to put his hands round his neck and watch his face flush, darken, then go blue. He wants to do it a few times, over a few days; taking him to the edge and back. He wants him to feel like a japanese murderer on death row who's taking his weekly trip to the doctor, never knowing if this is "The One". He wants him to have hope, then destroy it, or feel the despair and make it last. I know he wants him dead.

Up till now, I've been wracked with doubt. And not just about Petroff. Let's face it, once Scat's out there in the digital universe there's no hiding place. If it's crap, it stays crap and it stays public. It's not as though it can be pulled from the shelves and pulped. So maybe USD1.99 is a fair price. It's the same as for a gram of Prozac from Canadanorthofhongkong ie Guandong. I understand that's enough to quell the panic.

The second Scat novel (alternate titles: "Scat and the Harvesters" or "Soul Army") is already shaping up. I couldn't just leave Scat where I left him - I might be mean, but I'm not cruel. And it's proving to be as much fun to write as the first one was - there's no need to explain anything; it just gets straight to the story. As with "Scat", it'll have a few more sharp turns, and underlying the action will be a few questions - if you're of a mind to ask them. And I'm hoping you'll recognise the characters. After all, we work with them. The beggars follow us around where ever we go. Even to M31.

Grinding On...

The hardest part of producing a book must be writing the story, right? All that plot-lining, phrasing sentences to fit a character, pacing it just right to match the scenario. Makes sense, doesn't it. But you're wrong. It isn't. That honour goes to editing. Fark! It's harder than hard: it's perpetual friggin misery - I haven't felt this way since CNBC found Greece on the map and I cancelled my subscription to the FT on account of it being such a gloomy read.

So, yesterday, I took time out and had a beer with a friend, promising myself I'd leave Scat alone for a whole day. In any case, we deserved a beer: we'd just had a company meeting. We'd squabbled over who in Hong Kong was the authority on SFC regulations (some guy's mate at an insurance brokerage or the SFC) and then dealt with a whole load of regulatory issues.  But beer is a remarkable refreshment and it wasn't long before I realised my promise to leave Scat alone wasn't binding: it wasn't like it was a vow, or anything. There was no touching bibles and I hadn't signed my name. Anyhow, it wasn't long after getting home before I found my 3447th typo, rephrased the sentence right after that, and then deleted a couple of paras.

This morning I reached for the panadol and went looking for the deleted paras. I found them and put them right back. What was I thinking? I've never been a good drinker. Thank God for taxis, paracetamol and a decision I made when sober 14 months ago, to keep daily copies.

Occasional accident to one side, Scat's eager to go. Or as eager as he ever will be. He's just waiting on someone. Actually, he's waiting on a something more than a someone, a favour. A big one.

Meanwhile, I'm tapping away at the sequel and have just passed the 30000 word mark, which means I'm around a quarter of the way to an ending.  I'm thinking of adding the first 3 chapters or so to the tail end of Scat's first outing, after the Author Page, just to raise awareness. I've seen it done before. It worked for me. I think they did it with the Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwall. (Go back to typo later. Send apologies to Bernard.)

As Woody would say: "To Infinity and beyond, Onwards and Upwards!" - Scat's about to upload. He's only days away from being shot at form every direction by critics everywhere; if only they can find him. (which reminds me, start marketing...) He's only days away from... Oh, wait! It wasn't Woody who said that, was it? Check web. It could have been that other guy, Buzz. (Mental note: go back and change before publi

;-)

Jim

'Scat' is in the bag

After 6 months of writing and 8 months of self-editing, "Scat", is almost ready. No prizes for which part of the last 14 months were the most fun. It's due a release to e-readers sometime in October.

Scat explores the universe, only he is a reluctant explorer, forced into it by his former boss; the one he's been trying to kill for the past 5 years. Or at least he does in one section of the book... It's a complex story, not your average 'shoot 'em up'. A shade more than 150000 words which pans out at around 480-500 pages of a normal paper back. That surprised me too! One minute I'm struggling over the first sentence, 6 months later I'm staring into space with eye strain, a sequel forming in the rough.

Here's the proposed jacket promo -

‘If everyone in the world had the same consumption rates as in the United States it would take 5.3 planet earths to support them.’

New Economic Foundation 2007

‘Not everyone is suited for space, even if we could afford the suits.’

US President 2090

 

Which is a pity.

 

23^rd century Earth is on its chinstraps; climate change is a reality; global crop yields are falling and its 21bn population depends on the resources of the corporate-owned New Worlds to survive from year to year. When lobbyists say these companies are "too big to fail", they aren't angling for a bail out to prevent a recession. If they fail, so too does Earth.

 

So, a rebellion against corporate rule on the New Worlds is a catastrophe in the making. That is, until the rapacious Lynthax Corporation stumbles on a remarkable new technology; one so advanced it promises to solve Earth’s problems at a stroke.

 

Only saving Earth isn’t its top priority; instead it’s using the discovery to turn itself into a sovereign power across thousands of light years of space.

 

As conflicting interests collide, Scat finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. He’s trying to steer clear of trouble, earn a living and breathe no cost air, but neither Lynthax, the rebels or Earth can afford to leave him be…

Yep - it's Scifi. But its inspired by our ecological overdraft and the oddity of the Hong Kong Functional Constituencies. It also draws rough parallels with the recent financial crisis and being "too big to fail". Only I've mashed them up a little. Goldman Sachs becomes the Lynthax Corporation, a resource company which owns the mandate to run several New Worlds in the Outer-Rim. "Too big to fail" means just that - it isn't just a lobbyist's way of selling a bailout proposal - it means if it fails, so too does Earth.

There's the rogue UN ambassador, Cohen, who hatches a plan to kick the corporations out of the democractic process so his agency, ISRA, can manage space and its resources for all of the world's people and not just for some of its shareholders. There's Petroff, the director of Lynthax' security who becomes obsessed with the Thing he has found in space, and is now treating the growing discontent on the New Worlds as a mere annoyance. There's Pierce, a convicted environmental warrior who incites a worker dispute in a key asteroid mine, before leaving this dimension for another. And then there's Reggie, the leader of the outland families of Moss Valley, who struggles to keep the idea of Trevon's indendence alive whilst ISRA and the corporations slug it out in a covert war for universal domination. Enter Scat and shit starts to happen.

I've added some sci-fi elements - like FTL, the neuralnet, PIKLs, but the story doesn't lean on the techie stuff, other than to open it up to the odd surprise and dilema or two...

Social note: If you want to know what our current ecological overdraft looks like, go to http://www.happyplanetindex.org/explore/global/footprint.html.

Jim Graham

Smashwords profile https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/jimgraham

jimsgraham@hotmail.com

Twitter @jimsgraham