F. P. Dorchak

Speculative Fiction (New Weird) Author

Metaphysical

Goin' Indie

by

Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark
Goin’ Indie. (Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark , photo credit: Wikipedia)

Yeah, that’s my steely stare.

Determination.

I’m finally doing it.

Made the decision. Jumping in with both feet and my Bullwhip.

I’m going indie. And by “indie,” I mean e-books and (a little later, maybe earlier) Amazon hardcovers. Not going the route of AuthorHouse anymore. E-books. That’s the route. Check out Nathan Bransford’s post. These things are selling.

I’ve mentioned this once or twice elsewhere, but after the past couple weeks, getting a cover done, interacting with the person who will do my file conversions, going over my manuscripts and talking to those in the indie world, at this year’s PPWC (and this doesn’t even count the years I’ve been thinking about this, kinda watching how e-books “go”…), I’m not waiting another second. It has reinvigorated me, in this whole business of writing. I have four titles (one still needs some work—or might be the title I again try traditionally—but, we’re talking at least into 2014) I can publish, five if you count a Sleepwalkers e-book reissue:

  • The Uninvited. This is my whydunnit supernatural murder mystery about a troubled reporter who stumbles upon a gruesome and inexplicable mass murder in Gulf Coast Florida. This will be my first release. I was originally shooting for the end of May, but since this is my first, is my learning curve, it might actually turn out to be June. But I’m still shooting for May. So, please, stay turned—either way, it won’t be long!
  • ERO. This is my one (so far) science fiction-y, action/adventure novel. It’s about a marooned on-orbit astronaut who tries to reconstruct his life by relying on incomplete memories that place him at the very heart of the UFO conspiracy. This novel is, well, somewhat auto-biographical. It’ll be my next release.
  • Psychic. This is a companion book to Sleepwalkers. Okay, it’s the second in a considered series of three.  There, I said it. It’s actually more of a prequel (but, hey, what is Time, anyway?), and features the origins to the Man With No Name, from Sleepwalkers. I plan at least one more book to this series (it won’t take 12 years, like this one). It’s a supernatural action/adventure about a humble, guilt-ridden hotline psychic who becomes embroiled in the ultimate government conspiracy, involving JFK and remote viewers. Oh, and a really cool teenager.
  • The fourth is one that still needs lots of work, so am not going to give its title just yet, but, it’s about guy who falls in love with…ehhhh…a ghost. Of sorts. Yeah, yeah, I’m know, there have been other books about the topic, but what makes mine unique, I’m not even teasing with, because I still have some runway to ride before taking off. But, it’s not your standard, run-of-the-mill everyday ghost, we’re talking about here, and to tell the truth, I haven’t yet seen a “ghost” like this one.
  • Sleepwalkers. This one depends a lot on if AuthorHouse plans on putting it back into an e-book like they said they would a couple years ago. Haven’t even had time (there’s that word, again) to think about that yet. If can do the e-book to it, I plan on redoing the cover.

Depending on how long all this takes, I’m looking to release one book about every 3 or 4 months until I get all these out, so no real new work for me this year. ERO should come out around September/October time frame, and Psychic, November/December. I plan on pushing the Internet-y promotion as hard as I possibly can (I have some guides, but more on those, later). The Uninvited will be free for about the first three weeks or so, and this is mainly for reviews (this is a standard M.O. among the e-book community). It looks like some sites, like B&N, Amazon, have a way of setting prices (still looking into those), but at places where I can set the price, I’m looking to price it at $2.99, after the free period, but this remains to be seen, once I actually get to the upload part. But, from what I’ve read, e-books tend to sell well between the $2.99 to $5.99 range (and it’s not obvious about going right for the higher price).

So, there it is, that’s my plan. Out into the world at large. I’ll post more as I go, but I’m still cleaning up the manuscript to the The Uninvited, which, depending on a couple other logistical issues, is scheduled to be converted into all the different file formats next month (oooh, it’ll be hot off the author keyboard, like freshly baked cookies!). And while that is being done, I plan on beginning and hitting the promotions.

Look, I’m not pie-in-the-sky, I’ve been around, I’ve tried self-publishing by spending three grand, done and occasionally still do a short story or two, and even got an agent. Still, NYC didn’t think they could make any money off me. But I see and hear where e-books are going. I’m just a guy with voices in my head trying to get my work out there. My work has been termed “thinky,” sometimes jumps genres. But I try to tell stories, to show, perhaps, the way things could be, big What-ifs. I—like most every other writer out there—just like to write. For a while that passion was slowly getting snuffed out…but now I’ve found renewed passion. A new way to go.

A new…What-if.

I hope you’ll join me!

Oh…and I’m an optimist.

Related articles

Goin’ Indie

by

Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark
Goin’ Indie. (Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark , photo credit: Wikipedia)

Yeah, that’s my steely stare.

Determination.

I’m finally doing it.

Made the decision. Jumping in with both feet and my Bullwhip.

I’m going indie. And by “indie,” I mean e-books and (a little later, maybe earlier) Amazon hardcovers. Not going the route of AuthorHouse anymore. E-books. That’s the route. Check out Nathan Bransford’s post. These things are selling.

I’ve mentioned this once or twice elsewhere, but after the past couple weeks, getting a cover done, interacting with the person who will do my file conversions, going over my manuscripts and talking to those in the indie world, at this year’s PPWC (and this doesn’t even count the years I’ve been thinking about this, kinda watching how e-books “go”…), I’m not waiting another second. It has reinvigorated me, in this whole business of writing. I have four titles (one still needs some work—or might be the title I again try traditionally—but, we’re talking at least into 2014) I can publish, five if you count a Sleepwalkers e-book reissue:

  • The Uninvited. This is my whydunnit supernatural murder mystery about a troubled reporter who stumbles upon a gruesome and inexplicable mass murder in Gulf Coast Florida. This will be my first release. I was originally shooting for the end of May, but since this is my first, is my learning curve, it might actually turn out to be June. But I’m still shooting for May. So, please, stay turned—either way, it won’t be long!
  • ERO. This is my one (so far) science fiction-y, action/adventure novel. It’s about a marooned on-orbit astronaut who tries to reconstruct his life by relying on incomplete memories that place him at the very heart of the UFO conspiracy. This novel is, well, somewhat auto-biographical. It’ll be my next release.
  • Psychic. This is a companion book to Sleepwalkers. Okay, it’s the second in a considered series of three.  There, I said it. It’s actually more of a prequel (but, hey, what is Time, anyway?), and features the origins to the Man With No Name, from Sleepwalkers. I plan at least one more book to this series (it won’t take 12 years, like this one). It’s a supernatural action/adventure about a humble, guilt-ridden hotline psychic who becomes embroiled in the ultimate government conspiracy, involving JFK and remote viewers. Oh, and a really cool teenager.
  • The fourth is one that still needs lots of work, so am not going to give its title just yet, but, it’s about guy who falls in love with…ehhhh…a ghost. Of sorts. Yeah, yeah, I’m know, there have been other books about the topic, but what makes mine unique, I’m not even teasing with, because I still have some runway to ride before taking off. But, it’s not your standard, run-of-the-mill everyday ghost, we’re talking about here, and to tell the truth, I haven’t yet seen a “ghost” like this one.
  • Sleepwalkers. This one depends a lot on if AuthorHouse plans on putting it back into an e-book like they said they would a couple years ago. Haven’t even had time (there’s that word, again) to think about that yet. If can do the e-book to it, I plan on redoing the cover.

Depending on how long all this takes, I’m looking to release one book about every 3 or 4 months until I get all these out, so no real new work for me this year. ERO should come out around September/October time frame, and Psychic, November/December. I plan on pushing the Internet-y promotion as hard as I possibly can (I have some guides, but more on those, later). The Uninvited will be free for about the first three weeks or so, and this is mainly for reviews (this is a standard M.O. among the e-book community). It looks like some sites, like B&N, Amazon, have a way of setting prices (still looking into those), but at places where I can set the price, I’m looking to price it at $2.99, after the free period, but this remains to be seen, once I actually get to the upload part. But, from what I’ve read, e-books tend to sell well between the $2.99 to $5.99 range (and it’s not obvious about going right for the higher price).

So, there it is, that’s my plan. Out into the world at large. I’ll post more as I go, but I’m still cleaning up the manuscript to the The Uninvited, which, depending on a couple other logistical issues, is scheduled to be converted into all the different file formats next month (oooh, it’ll be hot off the author keyboard, like freshly baked cookies!). And while that is being done, I plan on beginning and hitting the promotions.

Look, I’m not pie-in-the-sky, I’ve been around, I’ve tried self-publishing by spending three grand, done and occasionally still do a short story or two, and even got an agent. Still, NYC didn’t think they could make any money off me. But I see and hear where e-books are going. I’m just a guy with voices in my head trying to get my work out there. My work has been termed “thinky,” sometimes jumps genres. But I try to tell stories, to show, perhaps, the way things could be, big What-ifs. I—like most every other writer out there—just like to write. For a while that passion was slowly getting snuffed out…but now I’ve found renewed passion. A new way to go.

A new…What-if.

I hope you’ll join me!

Oh…and I’m an optimist.

Related articles

Shifting Gears

by

Clutched? Shift!
Clutched? Shift! (Photo: RambergMediaImages.com)

Grind me a pound, will ya?

I feel…like a huge weight has been lifted from me.

Yesterday, I had a long talk with my agent about this SF-y action/adventure I’d been working on the past year, because the editor who came to me with the proposition (a first) turned it down—and (perhaps) rightly so.

Science fiction is really not my thing. I’ve written only one science fiction-y manuscript (actually a conspiracy theory with elements of science fiction…), and it’s a stand-alone, based in part on my early life, which I wrapped around aliens, government conspiracies, and gave new meaning to the term “extended family.”

NOTE: no, I have had no (zero-zilch-nada-nichts) personal extraterrestrial alien interaction at all.

That I know of.

Okay, back to this rejection thing. As much as the editor loved the ENERGY of my writing, the plot, he did not.

And I’m okay with that. I had issues with it, too.

But I tried, the past year, in doing something different, something outside “my box”…and I realized it’s simply not my thing. With an exception to follow, science fiction is not for me [to write]. I love writing about normal people experiencing weird shit. It’s that simple. Hey, it’s not like that stuff’s sold, either (though am considering other options)…but it’s what I love penning (penciling? keying?). In fact, I even try to be a little literary about it, my stories, whether or not I succeed still remains to be seen…but I try. Exception still to follow….

Not going to get into all the gory details—there really aren’t any—the whole series idea simply didn’t work, that’s all. We didn’t see eye-to-eye. That’s okay. And this whole time I worked on the project I felt…well…I felt conflicted…working on it (11 months on the thing as a whole, 8 months on the first draft). I just don’t do science fiction. And I don’t really do action/adventure, per se, though elements do surface in my material (but, at the same time—here’s the exception—I really do want to write an X-Files-like story…someday…so I might resurrect elements of this work later…). I do supernatural and paranormal. Everyday people. Mashing the two together. Somehow…I have to make that work better—correction, make that more salable. Or go indie publishing, which I’m still really considering for a couple works of mine. And, like my agent and I talked, it’s best I figured this out now, rather than forcing myself to continue plodding along at something I don’t really like doing or get stuck in some other project with less of an escape, if that be possible. It’s good to try new things every so often, even if they don’t pan out, because you always learn from everything you do. I truly believe that nothing in life is wasted, even if you can’t figure out what’s happening at the time or the why behind it….

But, he loved my energy!

I can bring a piece of paper alive, and I appreciate that from this editor-who’s-been-around. We get so few compliments on our work, so it was nice to receive this one.

My agent and I talked about other possibilities, I threw a couple ideas out—one of which I was working on directly before this project—and she liked them. Actually kinda liked the one I’d already started (120 pages in). And this one could even become a series—don’t know if I’ll go there, but I’m certainly going to put some thought toward it. But over the night and this early morning I also thought about maybe again looking into the Amazon CreateSpace route for one manuscript in particular, my supernatural whydunnit murder mystery. Stay tuned for possible developments.

But, oh, do I feel so much better! I appreciate all the help a handful of writer friends lent in creating this project, but it just didn’t feel right to me. Sometimes, I feel like I’m already in overdrive and am running out of gears…but I always have to go back to why I write in the first place (downshifting…). For the enjoyment, the imagination, the creativity. I’ve been doing this since I was six. I hope to keep doing it.

So, sure, I’ll grind a pound for ya—or ten. Want some cheese with that?

Shifting….

A Little Recap. Would You Like Some Tea—Or Prozac?

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William Bendix and Martin Balsam in "The ...
William Bendix and Martin Balsam in “The Time Element” (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Holy crap.

Things have been quite weird the past couples weeks—actually since mid-December, to be honest. I’d started (and since finished) an autobiography on someone I’ve followed throughout most of my life, and though elements of the book had been somewhat “annoying,” other elements of the book really hit home in unexpected ways. Which got me to thinking…why is it that some people get what they go after in life and others don’t? Even when they do all the right things, think the right thoughts, live the right life?

I know I wax philosophical and get all high and mighty, sometimes, but I try not to. I try to be open and understanding and all that. But I do have my opinions, just like many of you out there. Basically, I try not to be a jerk. And though I do believe that we all create our own lives, our own realities (I don’t believe Anyone else creates it for us, God, All That Is, or some powerful Universal Turtle), I don’t have to always understand every little minutiae associated with it.

And, apparently…I don’t.

I believe God, All That Is, and that powerful, Universal Turtle provide the support system (perhaps in the case of the Turtle, literally…) for us to this have other stuff, but I believe They want us to create our own lives and to take responsibility for it. I believe They do not want us to blame or fall back on Them for our lives. We have to step up to our own lives, our own responsibilities. But, whatever, this is not my point and I’m not gonna debate it, cause we all have our beliefs, so more power to all of you for what you believe in.

But, weird things have since happened to me, one that is life impacting, and I’m not going to go into, here (or yet). Other things followed, like massive computer problems. It seems every time I try to get into this new manuscript of mine, some weird shit happens, seeming to always try to keep me from continuing to get into it. Like the computer problems…and some other issue that I really really want to vent on but won’t, because it’ll get me into trouble. But…I’ll be (and am, now…) okay. I just took a sucker punch, a haymaker, and an upper cut (in that order) and it got me a little on the ropes. A bit dazed and confused.

So, good God, there isn’t enough time in the day…it’s ticking away…and I’m in some massive Twilight Zone warp of change and whatnot. I can’t please everyone, I try to entertain some, try to learn some, try to be good person, and try to have some fun along the way.

Sun’s up…moon’s setting…and the day is begun.

I’m looking forward to a nice walk/hike later.

Twilight Zone Marathon—2012/2013!

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Well, here it is, the day we all wait for, for many reasons!

1959 Series Logo
1959 Series Logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

If you’re like me, besides the day off so close to other days off, you’re checking out the DVR, test running it, giving it practice runs by recording other shows more and more, and of longer and longer duration you’re not gonna watch, only to delete them, polishing the box (make sure you lift the box and also get the top and bottoms), running diagnostics, and generally sweet talking the heck out of it, telling it how wonderfully it’s been performing for you the past year. “Flight testing” all the remotes, and hiding them (and the instruction manuals for non-remote control of the DVR) from all other family members. You might even <choking back a tear, here…> buy it a present. Like a wireless router <excuse me…I need a moment…>.

Why?

Three words:  Twilight Zone marathon, baby!

Okay, four.

Some of the best television ever. And right now, recording away are many, many DVRs. And the winners in this marathon…are the viewers (okay, and I’m sure the Serling estate and the SyFy channel).

We are all winners in this marathon. Yes, you can actually say “we’re all winners,” and not get body slammed into the nearest wall by the competitive of us. So, go ahead, there’s still time, it’s just started! Set your DVRs, Edward, you know you want to—and enjoy the run!

Just make sure to hydrate-hydrate-hydrate!

Related articles

Also pimpin: Twilight Zone-related blogs, Shadow & Substance, and  Seeker of Truth, for Twilight Zone posts and great insight!

It’s A Wonderful Life

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It is a wonderful life.

Let’s not waste it.

Let’s not destroy it.

Let us all realize the impact we each have on each and everyone else.

The impact we have on things.

Let’s create the life we all say we want.

A life of peace, respect, love, and doing what we want to do. Enjoy doing. A life where we all are free to express ourselves in positive, constructive ways that do not infringe upon others. Respects others and their differences.

It is a wonderful life…but only if we make it so.