Living in the great out there.
Wednesday, February 13, 2019
Listening in
I'm about halfway through the draft of the first of the new stories featuring the world's best Caribbean boat bum, Ron Anejo. While I'm working on those, I wanted to make sure everyone knows that the original story is available in audio as well as ebook and print. Paul Aulridge did a fine job of bringing the story to life and if you prefer listening to reading, give it a try.
And the cover art is by Dagny.
Saturday, February 2, 2019
Improbably Popular, So Maybe Not Impossible
A number of years ago, when I had a studio in Anaheim, California, I write a song I called AMERICAN DREAM. It was a result of being bombarded with ads and news coverage of the Miss America pageant. I wasn't a fan and so, wrote a tribute to women who didn't fit in the mold—women who didn't wear their hair right; women who used their heads for thinking. (Meaning no disrespect to the women in the pageant who do think... it was just that at the time, that didn't seem to be what won over the judges.)
I arranged it and recorded it as a rock song. As with so many songs recorded by independents, not just my songs, it went nowhere.
In more recent times, when my friend Harper John came to visit me in New Mexico. Harper John and I had formed a band in Hong Kong (The Lapsap Blues Band) and even after we went our ways, we collaborated. He went to The Philippines and I was in the Caribbean, almost exactly on opposite sides of the world. Then, when I was in New Mexico, USA, we decided to record an album called WORLDS APART. I came across this song again, and I asked him to sing it. He did and, as he does, he began messing with the lyrics. Soon the song had left the borders of the US and expanded into IMPOSSIBLE DREAM. Indiekline, our new band name, wasn't a rock band, but alternative, sort of folk rock, so the new arrangement was softer, more expressive.
Still, not much happened with the song (or the album). But Harper John went to Canada and continued to perform it. Eventually his version became a staple in his repertoire. Because he still riffs on it (happily) and writing down the lyrics would be a waste of time. Happily, it gets requested at his performances a surprising number of times. That pleases us both, because it is a song we both like. And his changes, his way of adapting everything he sings to current events and the current mood, keeps it alive.
Here is a video of him jamming on the song with some friends in Canada. it's as rough as Harper John's attitude. I hope you enjoy it.
Breaking News: Harper John has just entered a very unusual song of his Kyrie Eleison, Hallelu (an anthem to the universal common soldier) in the prestigious SEARCHLIGHT 2019 music contest up in Canada http://www.
If you'd like to vote, public voting begins on Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019, at 3 p.m. ET until Thursday, Feb. 14, 2019, at 2:59 p.m. ET. The public can vote once per Posted Song per day during the Opening Round Voting Period.
I arranged it and recorded it as a rock song. As with so many songs recorded by independents, not just my songs, it went nowhere.
In more recent times, when my friend Harper John came to visit me in New Mexico. Harper John and I had formed a band in Hong Kong (The Lapsap Blues Band) and even after we went our ways, we collaborated. He went to The Philippines and I was in the Caribbean, almost exactly on opposite sides of the world. Then, when I was in New Mexico, USA, we decided to record an album called WORLDS APART. I came across this song again, and I asked him to sing it. He did and, as he does, he began messing with the lyrics. Soon the song had left the borders of the US and expanded into IMPOSSIBLE DREAM. Indiekline, our new band name, wasn't a rock band, but alternative, sort of folk rock, so the new arrangement was softer, more expressive.
Still, not much happened with the song (or the album). But Harper John went to Canada and continued to perform it. Eventually his version became a staple in his repertoire. Because he still riffs on it (happily) and writing down the lyrics would be a waste of time. Happily, it gets requested at his performances a surprising number of times. That pleases us both, because it is a song we both like. And his changes, his way of adapting everything he sings to current events and the current mood, keeps it alive.
Here is a video of him jamming on the song with some friends in Canada. it's as rough as Harper John's attitude. I hope you enjoy it.
Breaking News: Harper John has just entered a very unusual song of his Kyrie Eleison, Hallelu (an anthem to the universal common soldier) in the prestigious SEARCHLIGHT 2019 music contest up in Canada http://www.
If you'd like to vote, public voting begins on Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019, at 3 p.m. ET until Thursday, Feb. 14, 2019, at 2:59 p.m. ET. The public can vote once per Posted Song per day during the Opening Round Voting Period.
Wednesday, January 30, 2019
Back to the Caribbean
My friend and colleague, J. Lee Porter and I have finished the first draft of book two in the Bipats series: CRYPTO CITIZENS. It follows on the heels of CRYPTO SHRUGGED and looks at the ramifications of smart cities, surveillance capitalism, and of course, blockchain technology. It is a story of global intrigue and the fight for individual freedom. This story takes place in Mumbai, Ecuador, Singapore, Mexico, Venezuela, and Somalia, as well as the US and Europe and even out on the oceans.
We are working through the manuscript, and when it's done it will go to the editor and so on, but expect to get it out this year.
We are hoping to find someone who is interested in this struggle to find a meaningful balance between the implementation of technology and maintaining our individuality to write an introduction. To that end, we are reaching out to some key people. Unfortunately, key people can be difficult to reach, and it is an uphill battle to get them to read unpublished books. But it was ever so.
Meantime, I'm working on a trilogy of mystery stories that feature my favorite fictional character, Ron Anejo... the hero of my THE LEGEND OF RON ANEJO. He's still in the islands, based on the mythical island of Kayakoo at the lower end of the Lesser Antilles, and sailing his old Danish fishing boat, MeinGott. Even his dog Groucho gets involved when, in the first book, a land developer from Miami is killed. The working title for this one is Death by Jumbie Eyes. And if you don't know what jumbie eyes are, they are also called crab-eyed seeds and used in Obeah, the offshoot of voodoo practiced in the Caribbean.
It will be a fun story. I hope to have all three ready to go midyear.
We are working through the manuscript, and when it's done it will go to the editor and so on, but expect to get it out this year.
We are hoping to find someone who is interested in this struggle to find a meaningful balance between the implementation of technology and maintaining our individuality to write an introduction. To that end, we are reaching out to some key people. Unfortunately, key people can be difficult to reach, and it is an uphill battle to get them to read unpublished books. But it was ever so.
Meantime, I'm working on a trilogy of mystery stories that feature my favorite fictional character, Ron Anejo... the hero of my THE LEGEND OF RON ANEJO. He's still in the islands, based on the mythical island of Kayakoo at the lower end of the Lesser Antilles, and sailing his old Danish fishing boat, MeinGott. Even his dog Groucho gets involved when, in the first book, a land developer from Miami is killed. The working title for this one is Death by Jumbie Eyes. And if you don't know what jumbie eyes are, they are also called crab-eyed seeds and used in Obeah, the offshoot of voodoo practiced in the Caribbean.
It will be a fun story. I hope to have all three ready to go midyear.
Friday, June 1, 2018
Keeping up with the news
H.L. Mencken famously wrote: "Prediction is always difficult, especially about the future." That statement is at once clever, dismissive, and devastatingly true. It's an issue that J. Lee Porter and I face every day as we work on our current project--writing political fiction about the social and political implications and ramifications of emerging technology, specifically, the blockchain.
The most difficult thing about writing contemporary political novels is the rapid change of real events, Sitting in my comfy chair, it was easy to predict some countries would jump on the cryptocurrency bandwagon the same way in, other times, they did on offshore banking. But Belarus? That surprised me.
If the changes were even linear, they'd be easier to anticipate, but when crypto is demonized one day and lauded the next (albeit a tamed, controlled, centralized version that is hardly cryptocurrency) it's hard to know what the next chain of events will be.
What we can do, and try to do, is examine the possibilities and dangers of implementing the new technology and the ways it might be implemented--for the how is a huge factor in the consequences a technology brings. Who controls (to the extent it is controlled) it is another issue. Sometimes, as with GMO food, the public is reassured, falsely, that it is controlled. The masses must be calmed, after all, even though there never was any way to keep genetically modified plants out of the food chain, and quite likely, no intention to do so. So, fiction dealing with that must address that particular deception.
We have a similar problem in writing about distributed ledger technology, except that it's backward--we are promised the advantages of the blockchain, yet "protected" from the horrors of privacy and no central authority. Happily, those empty, yet threatening promises are great fuel for fiction. Unhappily, they are a real and contentious issue.
When George Orwell wrote 1984, he envisioned a world that was quite different from the real version, and yet, using fiction as the vehicle, told a story that was startling true. He didn't get all the facts right, but he certainly got to the heart of things. He woke some people up and upset others.
We hope to do the same with the Bitpats series of books. That's why they are standalone novels in a contemporary universe of our own making.
And now, I'm supposed to be writing a scene in a Bangkok night market and need to get my head back into the sounds and smells of Thailand.
The most difficult thing about writing contemporary political novels is the rapid change of real events, Sitting in my comfy chair, it was easy to predict some countries would jump on the cryptocurrency bandwagon the same way in, other times, they did on offshore banking. But Belarus? That surprised me.
If the changes were even linear, they'd be easier to anticipate, but when crypto is demonized one day and lauded the next (albeit a tamed, controlled, centralized version that is hardly cryptocurrency) it's hard to know what the next chain of events will be.
What we can do, and try to do, is examine the possibilities and dangers of implementing the new technology and the ways it might be implemented--for the how is a huge factor in the consequences a technology brings. Who controls (to the extent it is controlled) it is another issue. Sometimes, as with GMO food, the public is reassured, falsely, that it is controlled. The masses must be calmed, after all, even though there never was any way to keep genetically modified plants out of the food chain, and quite likely, no intention to do so. So, fiction dealing with that must address that particular deception.
We have a similar problem in writing about distributed ledger technology, except that it's backward--we are promised the advantages of the blockchain, yet "protected" from the horrors of privacy and no central authority. Happily, those empty, yet threatening promises are great fuel for fiction. Unhappily, they are a real and contentious issue.
When George Orwell wrote 1984, he envisioned a world that was quite different from the real version, and yet, using fiction as the vehicle, told a story that was startling true. He didn't get all the facts right, but he certainly got to the heart of things. He woke some people up and upset others.
We hope to do the same with the Bitpats series of books. That's why they are standalone novels in a contemporary universe of our own making.
And now, I'm supposed to be writing a scene in a Bangkok night market and need to get my head back into the sounds and smells of Thailand.
Thursday, May 31, 2018
Writing the next book
Once a book is published, it's important to promote it, and we are doing that as best we can. CRYPTO SHRUGGED is out, with reviewers and we are working on advertising.
More importantly, however, J. Lee Porter and I are at work on the next book in the Bitpats Series... CRYPTO CITIZENS.
Preserving wealth and privacy are growing more difficult. The emerging technologies are making it harder to do both, but also provide tools for doing it better--the double-edged sword strikes even more fiercely. In this book, The Retinger Occulistica are moving the goal posts for their global strategy even as individuals, and the World Bank, IMF, Interpol, and national governments look to the new tools to increase surveillance and control. They are leveraging convenience and inclusion to convince people to hand over their privacy and freedom without a fight. Meanwhile, Bitpats and free individuals work to preserve their independence and freedom in an increasingly unfree world.
The challenges are huge, the landscape is global, and the politics grow increasingly intense.
The book is going well, so if you haven't read CRYPTO SHRUGGED yet, get going so you can enjoy the next standalone story in the series.
More importantly, however, J. Lee Porter and I are at work on the next book in the Bitpats Series... CRYPTO CITIZENS.
Preserving wealth and privacy are growing more difficult. The emerging technologies are making it harder to do both, but also provide tools for doing it better--the double-edged sword strikes even more fiercely. In this book, The Retinger Occulistica are moving the goal posts for their global strategy even as individuals, and the World Bank, IMF, Interpol, and national governments look to the new tools to increase surveillance and control. They are leveraging convenience and inclusion to convince people to hand over their privacy and freedom without a fight. Meanwhile, Bitpats and free individuals work to preserve their independence and freedom in an increasingly unfree world.
The challenges are huge, the landscape is global, and the politics grow increasingly intense.
The book is going well, so if you haven't read CRYPTO SHRUGGED yet, get going so you can enjoy the next standalone story in the series.
Now available at:
Tuesday, April 24, 2018
Going Live with CRYPTO SHRUGGED
We've finally gotten the complete draft of CRYPTO SHRUGGED finished and formatted as an ebook. It includes a foreword by Adam Kokesh (@Adamkokesh) that sets the right tone. As a pragmatic Libertarian running for not President of the United States with the goal of peacefully, responsibly dissolving the federal government, (adam@thefreedomline.com) Adam's reading of the book provided some intriguing insights and ideas for us to explore in other books in the series.
The book was edited and now Domini Dragoone (www.dominidragoone.com) is doing a stunning layout for the print edition; once we have the final page count Elizabeth Mackey (www.elizabethmackeygraphics.com) will be modifying the ebook cover she did for us (below) into one appropriate for the paperback edition.
The book has been on preorder, but now, impatient souls that we are, we've moved the launch date up to this Friday, April 27, 2018. You can get it in various ebook formats from Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble (Nook), Kobo, Angus & Robertson, and Mondadori.
The print edition will be along shortly and we plan our first book signing at Isla Mujeres, Mexico, in mid-May where we will be celebrating Jeff and Gigi's wedding along with the launch of the book. It's also another opportunity to research a story, and we have another short story in the works that is based there.
The book was edited and now Domini Dragoone (www.dominidragoone.com) is doing a stunning layout for the print edition; once we have the final page count Elizabeth Mackey (www.elizabethmackeygraphics.com) will be modifying the ebook cover she did for us (below) into one appropriate for the paperback edition.
The book has been on preorder, but now, impatient souls that we are, we've moved the launch date up to this Friday, April 27, 2018. You can get it in various ebook formats from Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble (Nook), Kobo, Angus & Robertson, and Mondadori.
The print edition will be along shortly and we plan our first book signing at Isla Mujeres, Mexico, in mid-May where we will be celebrating Jeff and Gigi's wedding along with the launch of the book. It's also another opportunity to research a story, and we have another short story in the works that is based there.
Thursday, March 15, 2018
An online Video with Omar Bham
Here is a brief interview we did with
Omar Bham (Crypt0) @crypt0snews while we were at Anarchapulco.
The book is now available for preorder from Amazon at http://amzn.to/2Gw4WaF
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