Speculative Fiction (New Weird) Author
This goes to show you that things happen for a reason. I originally posted it to my Facebook pages (here and here).
This happened last Sunday morning.
We do not get a paper copy of the Gazette…but every now and then (maybe 3 times a year?) one lands in our yard. It’s usually ads, though, not the full paper. Today…full paper. So, “certain things” on my mind these days, I open the paper. Life & Travel is the top sheet. I go to “Books.” I scan.
I see THIS.
Next month I am holding a book signing at The Bookman, in Colorado Springs, Colorado, from 1 to 3 p.m., Mountain time. It’ll be my first full-on book signing for Voice, though I’m also going to MileHiCon in Denver this month and I’m included in an en masse book signing of all the MileHiCon authors on Friday, October 23rd. I was there last year.
Next month’s book signing is on the West Side of Colorado Springs, just off and parallel to Highway 24. It’s catty-corner across from the Pizza Hut and within a stone’s throw of Safeway, where there’s plenty of parking.
I will also have some of my other novels on hand, but this signing is primarily about Voice.
Come on by (you, too, Vanessa!)…it’d be nice to see ya!
Voice Links:
When I got the package of the first set of books for my new release, Voice, I just had to share, for it was not in the least lost on me the irony of its delivery: in a plain brown wrapper.
Is that still a “thing” in today’s world?
Well, I laughed.
Related Articles
Okay, this may well get you all wondering what the hell’s going on with me, but I had one of the coolest metaphysical experiences happen to me the other night. Sure, if I were you, reading this, I’d have the same questions, but I’m not…I was at the receiving end and know what I experienced.
I went to bed early Wednesday night after rereading some of the novel, The Education of Oversoul 7. I was reading a section that talked about the Oversoul Seven character annoyed that one of its earthly personalities only saw him as an older guy with graying hair.
So, I go to bed.
About an hour or two later, I’m awakened by this guy my age or older—with gray in his hair—leaning out/down to me. He’s reaching out with his left hand with a focused concentration and tapping me on the forehead as I lay in bed!
I then actually (I physically did this—it wasn’t a dream) reached up trying to block his tapping, and said something like “Oh, come on…” or “Nooo!” because he was waking me up, for Godsakes! You see, I’ve been having trouble sleeping the past week and I’d had a good sleep…even if for only that hour or two then!
The man’s face was neutral…not smiling nor angry. It was actually very intent—focused—as in trying to get through to me.
This has meaning.
I’m sure many of you think this totally fictional, another byproduct of the all-illusionary hypnogogic state brought on by the novel I was reading. And that’s okay. But I don’t feel this to be the case. It was far, far too coincidental. Stuff like this doesn’t happen to me where I see something, watch a movie, read a book, then dream about it. My dreams just don’t work that way (and I’m quite aware of what I dream about and have been logging them since I was a kid, so I do know what I’m talking about, here).
This has meaning because I’ve recently been hoping I could have more dreams where I meet my oversoul—and remember it. Then the new novel I’m beginning work on caused me to return to this particular novel. Then, given the passage I’d just been reading, I have the experience just described.
It’s all part of a series of related events. As I always say, everything’s related to everything else.
This has to be my oversoul making “an appearance.” It’s been a year or more where I haven’t had an obvious dream about him/her and remembered it. It’s just too “coincidental,” and I don’t believe in meaningless coincidences.
And given the intense look of “focused concentration,” well, it’s one I obviously did remember!
What does it mean?
It means that there is another “entity” out there listening to me…and trying to help out in the background. Back behind the curtain of life. S/he (the male/female form presented is not the only form “they” [being “them”] wear) came at a perfect time…and with a perfect array of physical circumstances…my need, the novel, the passage within the novel…it’s all beautifully laid out if you think about it! Perfectly executed, with even a flair of not only the dramatic, but humor!
Really—tapping me on the forehead?!
It’s something my dad would do… but if that doesn’t get one’s attention….
All very much like who I am (dramatic: writing; humor: me). I just can’t convey how utterly perfect the execution enough!
I’d been so busy (mentally and physically) this week, it didn’t really hit me until yesterday how cool the execution…how dramatic an event it was! This happens in our physical existences, where we get so caught up in the daily minutiae of life. But we all have the ability to step back and pause: re-evaluate our days. Our actions. Our experiences. Many couch their similar experiences in religious clothes—or even outright ignore them—and that’s okay. We all have our personal beliefs and our experiences will be so filtered to match those beliefs. But that we have these experiences at all…that some of us are open to them and their many and varied interpretations is what’s important. You may think I saw an angel…or a hypnogogic character from a novel I was reading—and that’s your interpretation. Nothing wrong with it. But it’s not mine. And there’s nothing wrong with my interpretation. We all interpret our lives as we will and must. It’s one of the reasons we’re put into physical reality. It’s our own personal and individual path toward growth.
Be open the to weird. It has wonderous things to show you!
This past weekend I saw a 60 Minutes spot on the current movement of The Supremely Stressed to gain a more “mindful” approach to their lives. To forgo their electronic leashes and all the stress that accompanies today’s lives for their own thoughts and presence-of-mind. Peacefulness.
I find this interesting on many levels.
If you go to the above link, you’ll find you’ll be immediately pummeled by a loud and frigging obnoxious commercial for 30 annoying seconds. Then the 60 Minute spot starts and after mere seconds you are again redirected into the same fricking annoying soul-sucking commercial for another 30 seconds! At least my viewing of it was. I couldn’t X-out of that damned video fast enough.
For real, CBS? Did you not watch your own spot on “Mindfulness”?
My own stress level at the launching of that commercial shot through the roof.
A curious point brought up in the segment was that those creating, marketing, and promoting the very things that lead to elevated stress levels—the iPads, the cell phones, the very technology being eschewed in this retreat—are those being schooled in this new movement.
The condensed version of the 60 Minute segment is that one focuses on the present.
Does not multitask.
Learns meditation.
Becomes comfortable with their own thoughts.
There are various methods for doing all of the above (e.g., focusing on one’s own breathing), but what I wanted to get into was not the mechanics of it all, but that it is so cool that people are really “getting it” that we need to modify our behavior. That doing things like this makes one calmer, more open to listening, cooperating with each other, and that one becomes nicer.
I’m far from perfect, but for most of my life I’ve tried to live by these principles…but, admittedly, it’s not easy in today’s world. It’s like the proverbial Chinese Water Torture…when you constantly get pinged by anything—even the most calmest of us— eventually it’s easy to, well, snap. There are so many different directions I could go with breaking the whys and wherefores out…but, again, that’s not what I wanted to do, here. I just wanted to bring out the movement. To show that this retreat and other methods out there are showing us that there is a better way to live our lives and to hopefully plant a seed in those out there reading this to find your own way to a calmer path in your own lives.
You don’t need to have a bigger and better cell phone. That promotion at the expense of your happiness.
Try this…I dare you:
Sit down to eat any meal—at home—all by yourself. No distractions. No conversation. No music. Silence. Just you and your food. In a quiet location.
You might be surprised at how calming and enjoyable you find it.
Voice is now available at the following outlets: Amazon.com (e-book and trade paperback), CreateSpace (trade paperback), Barnesandnoble.com (trade paperback and Nook book), and Smashwords.com (ebook). It will be distributed through other distribution channels (like iTunes), as these are put into motion.
I have two initial reviews:
Small Press Reviews (my first review—thanks, Marc!): https://smallpressreviews.wordpress.com/2015/08/28/voice/
and Aaron Michael Ritchey’s Amazon.com review.
And the following “faux interviews”:
https://www.smashwords.com/interview/fpdorchak
A Faux Interview with F. P. Dorchak, Author of Voice (fpdorchak.wordpress.com)
A Faux Metaphysical Interview with F. P. Dorchak, Author of Voice (fpdorchakrealitycheck.wordpress.com)
I am working on consigning Voice in Colorado Springs (Poor Richard’s Books and Gifts) and Denver (Tattered Cover Book Store). More on these when I get my shipment of books rolling….
If you read Voice, please post a review at your favorite location!
Thank you in advance for all your support!