F. P. Dorchak

Speculative Fiction (New Weird) Author

Novels

ERO v. Extant

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ERO (© F. P. Dorchak and Lon Kirschner, 2013)
ERO (© F. P. Dorchak and Lon Kirschner, 2013)

Okay, let’s have some fun!

Based on the trailers alone, for this new TV SF series that starts tomorrow, I’m going to begin comparing my novel, ERO with Extant. I see some basic similarities, so I’m going to start a tweet campaign. I’m gonna keep it light and fun, and try to stick to “the facts.” I urge all of you to do the same! Feel free to tweet any similarities or miscompares between the two items!

So,I’ll begin, here:

ERO has a solo astronaut in a space station…Extant has a solo astronaut in a space station.

ERO has a hot chick, Extant has a hot chick.

Extant is produced by Steven Spielberg…ERO is produced (and written) by…uh, ummm…me.

Extant is a movie…ERO, my readers say, should be a movie!

ERO has a creepy guy in a space station…Extant also has a creepy guy in a space station.

So, okay, that’s the idea! Have fun and tweet away! Let’s see what kinds of comparisons we can come up with!

My Twitter handle is @fpdorchak

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Unearthing the Bones: The Order of My Work

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I Have Skeletons To Unearth. By American Museum of Natural History (http://adsny.com/nyindian/nyindianintro.html) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.
Yes, I Know Where the Bodies Are. By American Museum of Natural History (http://adsny.com/nyindian/nyindianintro.html) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.
I’ve been writing since I was six years old. That’s a long time, considering I’m in my early fifties. Admittedly, between the age of six and 26 that was sporadic, but in 1987, I got serious and began writing every day. I began (or should say continued) with short stories. Short stories and prose poems were where I began. I’ve lost track of how many I’ve written (I know it’s over a hundred, perhaps more toward 200?, is about all I remember), but only have a handful actually published. Someday, my plan is, is to published the better of those into a collection.

As I began indie publishing my novels, I thought it might be interesting to list out the order of the books, as I wrote them. So, that is what I’ve done here. I have also included in this list those novels I have not (and will not, as the case may be) publish, just to show the order of their creation, including my age when I began them. A couple of titles I will not give, since they are still works-in-progress that may or may not be actually released, or are novels I may yet return to, with titles that are more unique than what I already see out there. I thought, that might be an interesting point of view. How old was I when wrote Sleepwalkers? ERO? Was I your current age? What kinds of thoughts do you think of, now, at your age…that I might also  have been thinking? Do my works portray an expected state of mind, in my progression through time and aging?

Note: only the hyperlinked novels are released. The rest are unpublished.

So, here is my chronological list of novels, listing the years it took to write them. 1993 was a banner year for me.

Updated June 16th, 2015: Voice had been updated, #7, below. It is to be published July/August 2015.

  1. Satan’s Stairs, 1987 – 1990 (26)
  2. Village Idiot, 1990 – 1993 (took 2nd in a 1993 writer’s conference contest; 29)
  3. (Title hidden), 1993 (first draft only; 32)
  4. Second Coming, 1993 (incomplete first draft; 32)
  5. Reunion, 1993 -1996 (32)
  6. Sleepwalkers, 1993 – 1997; 2001 (32)
  7. Voice, 1997 – 1999; 2013 (36)
  8. Psychic, 1994; 2000 -2005; 2014 (33)
  9. The Uninvited, 2001 – 2004; 2013 (40)
  10. ERO, 2006 – 2008; 2013 (45)
  11. (Title hidden), 2011 (incomplete first draft; 50)
  12. (Title hidden), 2012 (first draft; possible series; 51)

Yes, I was—and continue to—write a fair amount. I take my writing seriously, and do try to write every day, but don’t beat myself up about it if I miss a day or so. I work a full-time job, so all this is part-time effort. A couple hours a day, and some (or not) on weekends. I’m less anal about the weekends the older I get. I do need some time off, you know.

Thanks to all of you who follow my social media and who’ve read any of my work. I do appreciate your time and effort spent on my words. I love playing with them. Thank you for sharing my fun!

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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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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!

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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