F. P. Dorchak

Speculative Fiction (New Weird) Author

Sex

Voice–An Erotic Tale of Nonphysical Love

by

Voice. (© 2015, F. P. Dorchak and Lon Kirschner)
Voice. (© 2015, F. P. Dorchak and Lon Kirschner)

I must admit, this cover near brought tears to my eyes!

Here—at last!—is the title and cover for my sexy new paranormal/ psychological mainstream (erotica?) novel, due late July/early August! Yes, the genre is mixed, but it will make for quite the steamy summer read!

Voice.

The cover is yet another awesome, amazing, incredible, extraordinary effort by Lon Kirschner, of Kirschner Caroff Design Inc., out of East Chatham, NY! Lon did my ERO cover, and he continues to deliver extraordinary results! I first met Lon through author/teacher/musician all-around-Renaissance Man Marc Schuster, and Marc’s book, The Grievers.

I love everything about this cover!

I love the artwork. The spacing. The blackness. I love the blue of the lady and my name…what Lon did with the title—look closely at it and you’ll see the Adirondack Mountains…see and hear loons on the lake…smell the must of the woods—and the mysterious woman against the black background simply gives me chills.

This cover is absolutely stunning!

It packs a powerful, emotional punch to me on levels I simply can’t explain. Don’t want to. I want it to rip my innards, my soul apart…I want to feel the impending torment, tribulation, and mystery this artwork foreshadows….

I just can’t stop looking at it.

I love all my covers, but I have to say…this…may well be my favorite.

Check out this post on Lon’s work.

Not only am I psyched by revealing the cover artwork, but also finally being able to voice the title of this novel out into the world! It has been a real effort keeping it under wraps! It feels so goood!

Despite the paranormal/supernatural elements, this is the most mainstream effort I’ve ever produced. As I’ve mentioned before, it also features some quite explicit sex scenes and is not for the easily offended. Voice is a density of story…a love story…one of families…and a search for meaning in one’s life. Pain. Redemption. It has supernatural/paranormal elements, but not in a “monstery” way. In a deeply psychological, maybe even uncomfortable way. It may actually make you squirm a little as you sit and read it. It is a story I could not put down…could not put away. Sixteen years in the making, it kept whispering to me…calling out to me. It is my most daring effort. It will be sad to let it go…to stop working on it…stop thinking about it….

It touches me deeply…largely, perhaps, because of the setting…the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York, where I grew up and continue to visit once a year. I so love that region, with its ancient mountains and dark, mysterious waters (another novel is forthcoming about this region and the dark, foreboding waters…). But I also love the characters…so flawed…so well-meaning…so enigmatic. It’s about what seemingly normal people who are conflicted…in love…do. How they wrestle with their demons. What they might do in the dark corners of their lives away from prying eyes….

What do you do in the wee hours of the night…and is it something you’re proud of?

It is fair to say I’m in love with this story.

Sigh.

The current status of Voice is that I am inputting copyediting redlines from my final reader. I then have to have the manuscript formatted for both e-book and trade softcopy (yes, I am doing both, the e-book first; I also hope to create an advance order selection on Amazon). The formatting could take as little as a week or as much as 2-3. So, this puts it at a late July or early August release. Stay tuned!

And in the next week or so look for a “faux interview” with me by one of the characters of Voice!

As always, feel free to use and e-mail and plaster the cover graphic around the globe—but, please, give proper copyright attribution to Lon and myself. If you’d like the actual files, request a review copy, e-mail me at fpdorchak at fpdorchak dot com, and as soon as they’re available, I’ll send them out!

And, write up a review once you’ve read it! Send me the link!

Thank you all for your support!

Related Articles

The Pink Elephant in the Room

by

The Pink Elephant in the Room. (By RANDY PRITCHETT [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons)
The Pink Elephant in the Room. (By RANDY PRITCHETT [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons)
All the time I’ve been writing my current WIP, in the back of my mind is this little niggling voice wondering about how believable a story is this. This may not be of concern to many, but to me it is, because I like to write fiction that is so real I’d like my readers to walk away from my work and think…Yeah, that could happen….

We’ve all heard the statement “truth is stranger than fiction,” and I feel that applies in this case.

People are strange.

We really are. Out in public, most of us seem pretty normal.

But how are we in private?

What weird little things do we all do that we hope most never see?

The more I learn about people the weirder it gets.

I was recently talking to some guys who used to work in commercial Internet/satellite provider work. What they told me totally changed my mind about what I wrote. About the private, in-the-darkness actions the characters in my WIP do.

These ex-installers told me they’d been called to homes that were in utter filth. Dirty underwear thrown behind dressers and couches…underwear that literally had feces in them.

Sex toys found around and behind furniture.

Women in various stages of undress…flirting and going after them.

Stupid and annoying “parents” who let their stupid and annoying progeny harass them, messing around in their tools (even stealing them).

Dogs let loose to bite and go after them as they worked.

Now, throw in all the stories you’ve ever read about the weird and perverted proclivities of Humankind I’m not even going to write about, it so disgusts me. I’d read about ancient Rome and what some sexual practices were. Some things you just can’t unsee. Unread. It sickens me and I really wish I’d never read it. I was actually stunned that Publisher’s Weekly had put it in their article!

So, as I wrote my current WIP’s sex scenes…as I let the manuscript sit while I receive my beta reader comments, I think about all this and realize…what I wrote is nothing compared to real life. Yes, my sex scenes are intense…are explicit…but, they are not unrealistic interactions between two seemingly normal people (or “lost souls,” as Edie called one of them—I so like that term!) hiding in the dark and trying to deny their connections. Apparently 50 Shades gets pretty graphic, and my work is apparently nothing like those books…but I can still give her a run for her money!

But all the above notwithstanding, my book is about the lives of several individuals and how they’re dealing with the situation within which they find themselves entangled. The scenes are explicit for me…but they are not unrealistic. Not over the top. When I hear about how others of the Human Race apparently run their lives…shit, sex toys, idiot progeny, heinous historical sexual practices and all…my novel stands in perspective just fine.

Say “Hello” to the pink elephant for me.

Related Articles

Update on WIP: Second Set of Comments In!

by

You're Such a Tease. (By Russ Anderson from London, UK (MGDK's middle) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons)
You’re Such a Tease. (By Russ Anderson from London, UK (MGDK’s middle) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons)
I received the next set of comments from a family member who is also a book editor. For professional reasons, I can only title this person as an “editor.” Here are some of the editor’s comments on my WIP…again, these are also quite encouraging! I’ve always been good with the idea of the story, but have not really been quite sure how this story might be received…but it’s looking like those who read it are quite taken—even “intrigued”—by it. And isn’t that what writers strive for? To write something that grabs or touches readers?

Of particular note, this editor even mentioned how “shocked” they (not giving away his or her gender) were by what I’d done with the ending. How cool is that?

Shocked.

Wow. Love it.

So, here are the editor’s comments. Again, as I’d stated in my previous blog on the subject, I’d sent the editor questions to help me assess my effort. I’ve included some of these questions where necessary, but those that give away too much of the story I’ve left out of this post or deleted content. I’ve also deleted content that is of a more personal note.

The editor’s comments:

It’s a different book than I remember looking at 10 years ago! The characters and some of the scenes seemed familiar, but more developed and focused.

From an editorial perspective, the manuscript works! It flows; it’s relevant; isn’t bogged down with unnecessary detail; avoids tangents; stays true to the plot.

From a reader’s perspective (if I can truly separate the two—editorial vs reader…), it’s a really powerful story! If I’m being honest, the fantasy/metaphysical genre isn’t my wheelhouse, but with respect to the story itself, <WIP> was intriguing. I wanted to understand the voice in Ben’s head more <deleted material>, so that definitely kept my interest. I liked the chemistry between Ben and Kendra, and the sex scenes (hello, pink elephant in the room!) could give E. L. James a run for her money.

(FPD: Really, I could give E. L James a run for her money? How cool!)

Question: So, did you think it all “fit” the story?

Answer: I do think it all “fit” when you consider the story as a whole and the different personalities of the characters, the infidelity, and Ben’s internal struggles—as well as his “fantasies.”

Question: Wasn’t “too much”? Yes, graphic, but did the scenes “work” for the given story? I was trying to strike a contrast between the mental and the physical. It had to be stark.

Answer: It was definitely graphic and definitely stark; and if the scenes had lacked the momentum you achieved—the buildup—they would have seemed too much; but given the context, the scenes absolutely worked.

Question: The ending make sense?

Answer: The ending definitely made sense! It wasn’t the ending I was expecting at all! <Deleted material—but some really cool comments on being shocked by what I’d done, but the editor’s comments gives away the ending! :-] >

Cool standalone comment: I think you highlighted the fact that everyone has skeletons and secrets; either we act on them, or we suppress them—whatever “they” may be.

Question: Any other comments?

Answer: If I’m being honest, the metaphysical content in the last couple chapters clouded things for me—but that’s a personal opinion. I see why you went there, and it worked in its own way. I mentioned before that metaphysical/fantasy is not my wheelhouse, but I respect its inclusion in <WIP>.

***

Thank you, “editor” for all your time and effort!

I still waiting on  two more readers, including my Cover Dude, Lon Kirschner (also keep an eye out for some near-future blog posts, probably starting this Fall, where Lon and I are going to highlight and comment on some of his work, which I love! I’m really looking forward to these posts!), then incorporate them, format them, then will shoot for a July/August 2015 release!

Related Articles

Righting Erotica

by

This Novel's Got Legs---And, Well, A Few Other Things.... (By Jean-Christophe Destailleur [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons)
This Novel’s Got Legs—And, Well, A Few Other Things…. (By Jean-Christophe Destailleur [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons)
As I work on the my current work-in-progress (WIP)—the sex scenes—I realized that once I got past what I was actually writing (graphic as they are), that they were all “words.” And as such, I was (am) trying to put the best words forward. I am trying to make the best scenes possible—as I do with any of my work.

Words are words.

Yeah, some of this stuff is unnerving…but that’s what I want them to be.

Unsettling.

I want you all unsettled by what you read.

I want a little squirming going on.

That is what these scenes are about…on a “mechanical” level. They’re about “in-the-dark” behavior from everyday people. About behavior we might only think about…or do in the dark corners of our lives.

Admittedly, it’s one thing to think about some of this stuff, and (for some) an entirely different matter once written.

After all, writing something gives it permanence, right? Like voicing a thought?

Thoughts are hidden, our own. But once we voice them…write them out…its like they take on a whole new meaning. The phrase “Think before you speak,” comes to mind. And how we look at someone differently once they’ve spoken…the unspeakable….

Actions we only do in private are known only to ourselves…unless voiced or written. This is the kind of ground I’m treading.

I don’t read erotica, so I don’t know what’s acceptable, so maybe I’m really off base, here, with my thoughts. And those who do read erotica may think nothing of what I’ve done.  I’m sure my efforts are most likely quite tame in today’s erotica world…and that’s okay (though I consider what I’ve written not-so-tame at all to me….). Once I got into the writing of this novel, I liked that the erotica became what I thought of as “a different kind of erotica.” Granted, when I’d first written this novel, back in 1997, erotica most likely wasn’t what it is today…but I’d still like to think my work will hold up to itself (um, yeah, there is a pun here, you just don’t know about it, yet…) in today’s world.

I “just” want to be able to portray what my characters are going through in such a way that it…justifies the story…evokes powerful emotion…that you see a part of yourselves in them. That you squirm a little at what you’re reading…insidiously become one with the story…the scenes…the characters.

Okay, even the sex.

So, to that end, once I get past what it is I’m actually writing…I’m trying to write the scenes as best as possible. Use the best words. Invoke the best, most powerful imagery. To make each scene properly fit the story. The plot. The characters—

I’m trying to make the erotica right.

Related articles