F. P. Dorchak

Speculative Fiction Author

Technology

ERO—The Press Release

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Is All We See...Real? (Photo credit: Wikipedia, Apollo 8 crewmember Bill Anders, December 24, 1968)
Is All We See…Real? (Photo credit: Wikipedia, Apollo 8 crewmember Bill Anders, December 24, 1968)

Here is the press release for ERO (click here). I used PRLog. The PR should be visible on their main page for a little bit today.

I’m releasing the book on July 20th, tomorrow, to time it with the 44th anniversary of the Apollo moon landings. Just for fun. I’m sure somehow I’ll be tagged as part of the conspiracy theory and treatises will be written about my involvement in promulgating the hoax of our lunar landings through the highest levels of government….

At least, a writer-selling-novels can only hope!

Take everything with a block of salt, readers.

Only real thing I realized after submitting I could have done better, is including a larger image of the book I attached to the PR. Dang it. Well, the PR does give an expanded view of the cover.

Can you all keep a secret? I might begin uploading files late tonight, so it might actually go live slightly early, Mountain Time, though it’ll be July 20th, Eastern Time. Shsssh. This is on a strict, need-to-know basis….

Join the confusion. Question everything. Nothing is as it seems.

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The Music of ERO

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http://youtu.be/N_GPxe91hWE

Unlike writing The Uninvited, where I listened to a lot of one particular band, while writing ERO, I listened to a variety of music. But even though I listened to a variety of bands (Foo Fighters, Soundgarden, Stone Temple Pilots, etc), I did gravitate toward one in particular Alice in Chains. “A Chains,” as they are also called (here’s their website), is turning out to be one of my favorite bands, though I’ve listened to them for years. They have a dark, metal, grunge, alternative feel to their music. I got back into them after hearing one of their coolest hits, “Nutshell,” while working on another project I’ve since backburnered. “Nutshell” is an emotional, acoustic piece with dark lyrics dealing with loneliness, death, and despair. Click here for “Nutshell” lyrics. This song, like it did for my backburnered project, fits the tone of ERO.

I also listened to a lot of Tool. I’ve also loved and listened to this band for years. They’re known for their trippy, long and complex tunes, described as “style-transcending” and part of progressive rock, psychedelic and art rock. Dark. Experimental. Love em.

I also listened to a lot of science fiction movie soundtracks, including the X-Files soundtrack, “Songs in the Key of X.”

I didn’t always listen to music while writing the manuscript, but when inputting my redlines or doing something that didn’t require intense focus, I’d put on an “album.” It’s amazing the frame of mind music can put you into.

Whatever music each of you enjoy, I hope you also enjoy ERO, which is still set to go on sale, this Saturday, July 20th, coinciding with the 44th anniversary of the Apollo 11th moon landing.

Question everything.

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ERO—The Research…and the Truth

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Grainy B&W image of supposed UFO, Passoria, Ne...
Grainy B&W image of supposed UFO, Passoria, New Jersey Edited version of Image:PurportedUFO NewJersey 1952 07 31.gif. By Bach01. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

ERO is about how one lieutenant’s life had changed after having become part of the UFO conspiracy machine.

It’s fiction.

I made it all up.

There are aspects of my real life embedded within the story…but not in any of the fantastical, conspiracy theory laden aspects. I have an active imagination, is all. I began the story with a single premise I can’t say, because it actually gives away the story, and added to it from a host of material. Most of the scenes just flowed into the writing as it happened, but, occasionally, I added material I’d read about and thought would make for some cool scenes. One of the continued scenes I added was from a book I found, called Above Black, by Dan Sherman. It blew me away, and I thought, huh, that’d be neat to include. So, I contacted the author and asked him if I could incorporate it into my novel. We did a short Q&A exchange, and he said I could. So, once I incorporated it, I’d sent him a copy of it to review. Never heard back from him one way or the other, but appreciated him letting me incorporate it. Thanks, Mr. Sherman, hope I did it justice and hope you are faring well.

Another instance of incorporation involved using the Communion books, by Whitley Strieber. Though I did not contact Mr. Strieber (or did and had no response, I can no longer remember), I borrowed certain aspects from his work. Those who have read his work will recognize where I have done so. Again, I’m not going to give away the scenes, but when I read Mr. Strieber’s work, again, I was blown away by what I read. If half of what I’d read was true, life truly is more fantastical than many of us realize. And, if you read other works, more frightening. If you are to believe some of this material (see bibliography, below), people have died talking about some of this stuff. And, if you believe some of this material, our lives are not our own, and never have been. That’s the problem with conspiratorial writing. Over the years I have read tons of books on UFOs and extraterrestrials, especially as a kid. As an adult, I scaled back quite a bit…until I wrote ERO. To be honest, some of this material scared me. One book in particular put me into a particular “funk” after having read it (and, it’s the only book I’ve read that actually had a disclaimer up front, almost trying to keep you from reading it!). Other books appalled me. Others, amused.

Are our lives our own?

Is there another, shadow government out there quietly running the world?

Is the Truth obfuscated for dark, nefarious purposes?

Do UFOs and extraterrestrials exist?

These kinds of questions plagued me the more I read about conspiracy theories as I wrote ERO, and tugged and tore at my belief systems. Eventually, I’ve made peace with it. Whatever is going on out there is and has been going on out there with or without my direct knowledge of it and will continue t do so. Do I believe in everything I’ve read? No, I don’t. And it doesn’t matter, because it really has little impact on my life on a daily basis.

You know, short of ETs coming “out.”

We all live our lives as we do, trying to get by, doing the right thing (most of us). All have our belief systems. And what if these conspiracy theories are just another alternate reality that intersects with all our individual realities, in that, it’s not really real…just an alternate present/past/future we touch on when we “go there.” That life is really all sunshine and rainbows and ice cream…but when we start talking “dark,” then this other reality “Venn diagrams” its way into our reality, our consciousness? And, if that is the case, then we can just as easily not allow it into our consciousness by not believing in it.

I know, a bunch of hooey, to most. But, it’s the perfect “conspiracy machine.” This whole world obfuscates everything. And it doesn’t cost those who may be control a dime.

Isn’t that perfect?

Because, those who may be running things…the secret societies, the shadow governments…get what they need. Confusion. What is real, and what is imagined?

If people really had died in talking about any of this stuff, how did others survive while talking about it? To help put your minds at ease, from what I’d read, those who had theoretically died from “talking” had actually, theoretically taken part in the dark, hidden worlds of UFO/extraterrestrial operations (or had actually “known something”)…had been pledged to eternal silence…then spoke out once they “left” the organization. Now, if anyone is any kind of familiar with the science fiction world, you well know, once you enter any kind of weird Secret Society, you never, really leave. At least that’s what we’re told from the like of the SyFy channel and similar ilk. Yet…one or two still claim to do it and survive, and reasons are given, usually they’re smaller players, or not big enough names making big enough splashes, with important enough wave-making…or because the do muddy the waters just enough to be of benefit to the whole obfuscation process.

Or, it could all be fake.

It’s a weird world out there, Horatio

So, all that said, I’m just a know-nothing guy who had a cool idea in his head for several years and finally wrote it down. I have zero experience with any kinds of UFOs (uh, as far as I know…) nor any kind of experience in any kind of “dark operations.” This entire plot came solely from my imagination and into which I incorporated elements of publicly available material, to which I freely attribute my sources and acknowledgement of their efforts. I am grateful to everyone who wrote their books, and, in some cases, were brave enough to do so.

Don’t take anything for granted. Your life is yours…make the best of it and do not let anyone take away any of your rights to it. And, like a favorite television show used to say every week:

The Truth is Out There.

My ERO research material:

ABOVE BLACK, OneTeam Publishing, 1997, 2006, by Dan Sherman, ISBN 0-9660978-0-7

ALIEN AGENDA, HarperCollinsPublishers, 1997, by Jim Marrs, ISBN 0-06-109686-5

Body Of Secrets, Anchor Books, 2002, by James Bamford, ISBN 0-385-49908-6

BREAKTHROUGH, HarperCollinsPublishers, 1995, by Whitley Strieber, ISBN 0-06-017653-9

Communion, Beech Tree Books, 1987, by Whitley Strieber, ISBN 0-688-07086-8

CRASH AT CORONA, Paraview Special Editions, 2004, by Don Berliner and Stanton Friedman, ISBN 1-931044-89-9

DARK MISSION: THE SECRET HISTORY OF NASA, BY Richard C. Hoagland and Mike Bara, Feral House, ISBN 978-1-932595-26-0

Deep Black, Berkley Books, 1988, by William Burrows, ISBN 0-425-10879-1

Dreamland, Villard, 1998, by Phil Patton, ISBN 0-375-75385-0

Leap Of Faith, Harper Torch, 2002, by Gordon Cooper, ISBN 0-06-109877-9

Roswell: Inconvenient Facts and the Will To Believe, Prometheus Books, 2001, Carl T. Pflock, ISBN 1-57392-894-1

Rule by Secrecy, Perennial, 2001, by Jim Marrs, ISBN 978-0-06-093184-1

Sky Walking, Collins/Smithsonian Books, 2006, Tom Jones, ISBN 978-0-06-088436-9

That Crazy Lady Down The Road, Earth Star Publications, 2005, by Judy Messoline, ISBN 0-944851-14-2

THE DAY AFTER ROSWELL, Pocket Books, 1997, by Colonel Philip J. Corso (Ret.) and William J. Birnes, ISBN 0-671-01756-X

The Right Stuff, Bantam Books/Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 1979/2001, Tom Wolfe, ISBN 0-553-38135-0

The Roswell Legacy, New Page Books, 2009, Jesse and Linda Marcel, Jr., ISBN 978-1-60163-026-1

The works of Seth, Jane Roberts, and Rob Butts

The Zeta Reticuli Incident (and Commentary), AstroMedia Corporation, 1976, Terence Dickinson

Top Secret, The Dictionary of Espionage and Intelligence, Citadel Press, 2005, by Bob Burton, ISBN 0-8065-2650-5

TOP SECRET/MAJIC, Marlowe & Company, 2005, by Stanton T. Friedman. MSc, ISBN 1-56924-342-5

TRANSFORMATION, Avon Books, 1988, by Whitley Strieber, ISBN 0-380-70535-4

UFOs AND THE NATIONAL SECURITY STATE, Hampton Roads Publishing Company, 2002, by Richard M. Dolan, ISBN 1-57174-317-0

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What Have I Done? The Return of Facebook….

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Image representing Facebook as depicted in Cru...
The Return of… (Image via CrunchBase)

Well. After much consideration and feeling a bit like I went back on my, uh—morals?—I’ve returned to facebook. After two years.

But, in a different way.

I’ve created an Author’s Page. I.e., I’m not doing FB as a “regular user.” I find that this might be the best thing for me, because, unless I’m seriously missing something (and many say that I am…), it appears that going this way limits all the standard FB activities, and I “like” that just fine (pun intended). There was much rethinking that went into this. It’s not that I have issues with the mechanics of FB, with what it is and how people use it, I just have issues with its creator’s views on privacy (last I’d tracked Mr. Zuckerberg, he didn’t believe in the concept). Now, I’ve also read FB was going to try to strengthen security settings, so we’ll see. I will do my best to remain open on all of this, while on it, and if it gets to the point where I just can’t do it any more, I’ll delete my account. Again. But, everyone keeps telling my that to get my books out there, FB is a The way to go. And it is kind of a cool mechanism for promotion and keeping in contact. Heck, look how ubiquitous it is!

Speaking of security, when I created my account, I tried to configure as much “security” as I could find. I’ll be keeping an eye on things (pardon the pun; see link below). I’ve noticed that in creating an Author Page, things seem more “controlled”; e.g., I don’t seem to be able to “Like” anyone, or mess around with the bulk of FB that many use it for in the first place…but, again, that works just fine for me. I’m on a “Admin” page, and I don’t know if there’s a way off that. In any event, my FB page is:

Click here for my FB location.

So…I will give it another chance. I can be forgiving, and I am open-minded.

But, apparently…I just can’t “Like” stuff.

Going Indie—What I’ve Learned (So Far)

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How to Be Indie
How to Be Indie (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In diving head first into this New Indie World, here’s what I’ve learned, so far:

  1. Writer a killer story. But, you knew that.
  2. Get your work proofed by another! Doesn’t matter how many times it’s been done before, do it AGAIN before going live. I’ve been working on The Uninvited for 12 years…lost track of how many sets of eyes have read it, and I’ve still found issues!
  3. Formatting is king. If you don’t want to do this yourself, hire someone, for Pete’s sake. Lynda Hilburn referred me to A Thirsty Mind’s Pam Headrick. She’s quite reasonable in her rates, and oh-so-easy to work with! I’m a newbie to The New Indie, and she was so danged gracious and helpful. I know she probably aged 5 years dealing with me that past two weeks….
  4. There is a growing list of digital distributors out there! I’m going with Smashwords as my lead, but may also going to go with B&N (which has a weird statement in their contract, about how authors are responsible for all the laws in all the countries in which their works are published—really, B&N, for real?)…unless I go through another, like, Digital2Digital.
  5. There’s never enough time in the day. You can’t do it all. Just do what you can. Find out what you’re best at and focus your efforts there.

Well, that’s all I got for now.

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Going Indie—What I've Learned (So Far)

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How to Be Indie
How to Be Indie (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In diving head first into this New Indie World, here’s what I’ve learned, so far:

  1. Writer a killer story. But, you knew that.
  2. Get your work proofed by another! Doesn’t matter how many times it’s been done before, do it AGAIN before going live. I’ve been working on The Uninvited for 12 years…lost track of how many sets of eyes have read it, and I’ve still found issues!
  3. Formatting is king. If you don’t want to do this yourself, hire someone, for Pete’s sake. Lynda Hilburn referred me to A Thirsty Mind’s Pam Headrick. She’s quite reasonable in her rates, and oh-so-easy to work with! I’m a newbie to The New Indie, and she was so danged gracious and helpful. I know she probably aged 5 years dealing with me that past two weeks….
  4. There is a growing list of digital distributors out there! I’m going with Smashwords as my lead, but may also going to go with B&N (which has a weird statement in their contract, about how authors are responsible for all the laws in all the countries in which their works are published—really, B&N, for real?)…unless I go through another, like, Digital2Digital.
  5. There’s never enough time in the day. You can’t do it all. Just do what you can. Find out what you’re best at and focus your efforts there.

Well, that’s all I got for now.

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