F. P. Dorchak

Speculative Fiction (New Weird) Author

Art

The Indie Author Manifesto, by Mark Coker

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We Hold These Truths To Be Self-Evident! (Howard Chandler Christy [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons)
We Hold These Truths To Be Self-Evident! (Howard Chandler Christy [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons)
I love this guy!

Mark Coker.

Creator of Smashwords.

I met him at a writer’s conference a couple years ago, drove him to the airport with a carload of other VIPs. This guy is so cool, so down to earth, so frigging real. He isn’t afraid to stand up to the icons of the publishing industry and call “Foul!” Dazzle them with the facts.

From his current post, I have lifted what he is calling, his Indie Author Manifesto.

Rock on, Mark Coker!

THE INDIE AUTHOR MANIFESTO

We indie authors believe all writers are created equal, that all writers are endowed with natural creative potential, and that writers have an unalienable right to exercise, explore and realize their potential through the freedom of publication.

I hold these truths to be self-evident:

  1. I am an indie author
  2. I have experienced the pleasure and satisfaction that comes from self-publishing
  3. I have a right to publish
  4. My creative control is important to me.  I decide when, where and how my writing graduates to become a published book.
  5. Indie does not mean “alone.”  I choose my partners.
  6. I shall not bow beholden or subservient to any publisher. In my business relationships, I seek partnership, fairness, equity and mutually aligned interests.
  7. We indie author comprise diverse writers unified by a common purpose to advance, empower and celebrate writers everywhere.
  8. I am a professional.  I take pride in my work, and I strive to improve my craft to better serve my readers, myself, my fellow indie authors and the culture of books
  9. My writing is valuable and important.  This value and importance cannot be measured by commercial sales alone.
  10. I celebrate the success of my fellow indie authors, for their success is mine, and mine theirs. Together we are pioneering a better future for books marked by greater quality, creativity, diversity, choice, availability, affordability and accessibility.

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To Blog or Not To Blog a Novel

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By Camdiluv, from Concepción, CHILE (Colours) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons)
By Camdiluv, from Concepción, CHILE (Colours) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons)
I say “novel,” but it could just as well be a short story.

I’m going to try to make this short and sweet.

There are all kinds of advice floating around about whether or not one should or shouldn’t blog out portions of one’s work into the Internet…how it might or might not damage the success of said work, should the blogger want to publish it, en masse.

Dare I say it?

Bullshit.

To that I add: pure bullshit.

A member of the writing I belong to expressed concern about that, because that was what this member was doing…then had stopped…but was, again, considering doing. He did it because of several reasons, some of which were that he enjoyed doing it. It got him writing. He’d found an audience.

I’d say the following be my opinion, but I really don’t think it’s an isolated “opinion” anymore. Heck an opinion at all; it has become fact: As long as what you do doesn’t hurt anyone, do what you love. Do what you enjoy. There are always people out there who love serials…and those who would love to read those serials again…or in one complete form. Those who have never seen your work, so one platform or the other serves them.

Do you really think a traditional publisher is going to care whether or not you blogged about your work–if they really felt they could make millions of you?

Hell no.

Any free promotion they can get to help sell their version of your work, all the better.

Look, no trad publisher is gonna take you if they don’t feel they can make a buck off of you, period. Your blogging of your book is an antiquated issue, based upon antiquated reasoning. Antiquated reasoning is what’s damaged (and continues to damage) traditional publishing. Reasoning can be made for or against anything, but it’s all about packaging. Look at all the crap out there that’s been out there for ever, suddenly repackaged and re-promoted. Instead of bitching and moaning about what not to do, about how terrible the world is and how things “could never work,” why not spin that frown upside down, my perfectly bound friends? Anything can be sold. Just put out a little effort, for crying out loud.

And you can always, always, Indie publish (don’t even get me going about how Indie publishing merely promulgates more shitty work into the world).

Do what gives you joy.

It’s your life.

Live it as you want. If your work is good or meant to succeed–in however way you define it—it will.

Just ignore all the white noise out there, and do what makes you happy. Life is short. Play hard.

To “he” out there, you go, dude! Have fun and keep your audience wanting more!

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Psychic Cover Reveal!

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© Psychic (F. P. Dorchak and Duvall Design, 2014)
© Psychic (F. P. Dorchak and Duvall Design, 2014)

Here is the front cover to my new novel, Psychic.

I decided to do the cover early, this time. I’m still polishing the manuscript, which, I think, still has a couple of months to go. But I’ve had such a hard time visualizing what I wanted for the cover since the very beginning of this manuscript’s creation…and, with the help of Karen Duvall, of Duvall Design, we came up with a great image, huh? I really love it.

Psychic is about a humble and angst-ridden hotline psychic who gets embroiled within a remote viewer government conspiracy, headed up by one shady, evil, Victor NMI Black. It’s an action/adventure that shows the origin of The Man With No Name (MWNN), a character from Sleepwalkers, and interlaces an alternate history storyline with John F. Kennedy. The story takes place in 1994, where JFK is 77 years old. The date is also significant, since the official remote viewer organization the government had used (in our present-day reality) was officially disbanded that year. I use a present day organization, The Monroe Institute and morph it into an alternate location, called the JFK Center, where my story’s remote viewer activities take place. The story is heavy on probabilities…the different roads that actions and people can take…or not. I play around with time…time travel…paradoxes…how scary, nefarious people can come into other people’s lives and simply take them over. How much of what you read in the news is real…or fashioned. Can “facts”…change? This is an intricate story…a gritty story (much grittier than Sleepwalkers…but it is part of the Sleepwalkers “universe”; I expect at least one more novel to come out of this universe)…and gets into the “backgrounds” of our lives and how things may—or may not—come into being in our everyday lives, however nasty those things may be….

Check out my Psychic Pinterest board for images related to this novel!

Many, many thanks go to my “cover girl,” Karen Duvall, of Duvall Design. And I hope you’ll all join me when Psychic is unleashed upon the world, and enjoy what I’m billing as the ultimate conspiracy!

Feel free to freely use the cover graphic in any (legal and tasteful) ways possible, just properly attribute ownership!

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Cemetery Art

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By Robin from Kraków, Poland (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 Public domain via Wikimedia Commons)
By Robin from Kraków, Poland (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 Public domain via Wikimedia Commons)

You know, one might well ask, what the hell, Frank? Why are you so fascinated with cemeteries?

Fair question.

I’m fascinated with life…and life involves transitions. Part of those transitions…is death.

Death…cemeteries.

I posted my query to myself on this same question, in my post Cemetery Dance, where I attempt to answer this question. But, since I’ve gotten onto Pinterest, I found something else that piques my interest about cemeteries: all the really cool cemetery art. Yes, art. The stuff is incredible. It’s art that rarely seems to get the time of day. Sure, some of it is creepy, but to someone, like myself, who’s interested in the paranormal and supernatural, wow, it’s some of the neatest art out there! A real-life Night Gallery of sculptures! And what they reveal in their composition can be quite stunning. The love and caring that went into their creation, the expression of their love for the dear departed over which they now reign can be downright striking.

So, rather than post all kinds of Pinterest photos here (if that’s even legal…), please take a look at some of my collection. I’ve only recently gotten onto Pinterest, so I don’t have a ton of material, but I do add to it kinda frequently, so please, feel free to stop by off and on, during your travels! Hope you find them as fascinating as I do!

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A HUGE Thank You To All of You!

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By Erkan Yilmaz (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
By Erkan Yilmaz (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
I just wanted to give a heartfelt THANK YOU to everyone who has taken the time to visit my sites (here, Facebook,  About Me, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest), read and review my work, or to mention any of this to another. In interacting with me on social media (oy, and trying to stay up and current on all this social media while working a day job, trying to WRITE, living a regular life…?!).

It is still weird to me, as long as I’ve been writing, the whole promotion thing…focusing attention on me…so, I look at it more as focusing attention on the work (I even have a hard time saying my work!). The books, the stories. These are things people like me like to say we “channel,” or sculpt into existence. Like a wood carver “discovering” the shape that “forms” out of tree trunks or limbs. We shape things. I suppose we all do it for different reasons, like entertainment, enlightenment, cathartic release. I’m sure you’ve heard it all before. Whatever the reason, we just do it. It’s what’s “built” into us…mechanics are drawn to oil and machinery and athletes to their sports. We’re all drawn to something in our lives. Writers/artists are no different. But in our case, without you, we’re only halfway there. To write is to be read, and I am ever grateful for you being on our team, because it is a team.

I appreciate that you’ve taken time out of your day to spend a little of it with people like me to read, comment, discuss, commiserate, what-have-you. There’s a lot going on out there, and I’m very appreciative of everyone’s time and efforts, and I periodically like to let you all know that I try to take very little for granted…especially my readers and support group—YOU.

Thank you!

Again, With the Code Enforcer, Already?

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Class Clown Pictures © FOREVER
Class Clown Pictures © FOREVER

This is me pushing my brother’s current project.

Now, usually, by “pushing my brother” it’d mean something sophomoric, like, into a wall, down a flight of stairs, or into another in the checkout line, but since we’re theoretically older and wiser, it now means I’m “helping,” by pushing a project of his. And by “project,” I mean “a thing,” not to project…unless you mean, “projecting into the future (the near future…), which is where this project (“a thing”) is, and to which we are helping….

Geesh, writing is hard.

Okay, whatever, just click here: http://www.seedandspark.com/studio/code-enforcer

Since there’s no “share” for the above funny video, please to click and view. It’s, like, three minutes. You can do that standing at the toilet this morning (or sitting, as you prefer; I don’t judge). It is HOA Code Enforced approved (HOACEApvd, #HOACEApvd).

My brother, Greg Dorchak, Tim Cunningham, et al, are pushing their crowdfunding endeavor, “Code Enforcer,” a comedic independent film they’re looking to get financial backing for. For which they are looking to get financial backing. I’ve posted about this before, it’s been an ongoing project of his, and the teaser videos are über great (“funny,” not  “large”), so I hope you’ll take a couple minutes out of your day, whether or not you’re standing before a toilet, to check it out, and head over to Seed & Spark and also help them out (and also please check the “Follow,” which is like “Fellow,” but without the “e.” And has an extra “o.” But isn’t “extra” in that it isn’t needed, cause it really is, or you’d think the word was “fellow.” And it isn’t even associated wholly or in part with the whole Seed & Sparks thing, so I don’t know why I even bothered to mention the damned thing…). I did, parts of my family did (won’t tell you which parts), but we were heavily threatened and badgered into doing so. But, it’s all good, right?

Greg’s been in a variety of things, and by “variety,” I mean lots of different things. And here (love the Creativity Captured one the best). He’s been in a national Jimmy John’s commercial that played lots during baseball season, and has been in movies, like “Miss Congeniality” (he was one of several “FBI Man in Background,” though no credits were given for the extras).

(It’s not that all his other movies were like “Miss Congeniality,” i.e., “Miss Congeniality” 2 and 3, or that they all involved a hot female FBI agent who undercovers as a beauty contestant, but that he was in movies, as in [“e.g.,”] “a” movie, such as one “like” [“for example,” that’s what that “e.g.” means] one called “Miss Congeniality”….)

Are you as annoyed with me, right now, as much as I am with myself?

So, this is me pushing my brother’s current project.

This is me being a Tweet Whore (which is exhausting, see all my retweets this morning…).

And this is you, checking out Code Enforcer stuff.

Thanks for being you.

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