F. P. Dorchak

Speculative Fiction Author

Wailing Loon

Canceled Voice Pre-Order

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Need I Say More? (By Granny Enchanted [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons)
Need I Say More? (By Granny Enchanted [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons)
I decided to cancel the Amazon pre-order of Voice, initially expected to be released August 7th. Turns out I only had one pre-order (and it’s a friend of mine and we’d already talked), I still have a lot to do, my proofer is still hard at work, and, well, I’m getting a bit burned out.

So.

I’m gonna take a break from my Voice redlines all of next week. I need to air my head out. Have a lot of things going on and there’s no real reason to [once again] force myself to meet some arbitrary deadline of my own making when there’s no real need. I just thought I’d try it. It’s a cool function.

Voice will get released when it’s ready. Apparently now’s not the time.

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Voice–An Erotic Tale of Nonphysical Love

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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!

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Loons

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I love loons!

They are my favorite bird!

You may have noticed that with my “imprint” logo on my novels. Let’s talk a little about them, since I like them so much. Loons populate other regions, but, since I’m from the Adirondack Mountains, that’s where I’m focusing.

The loon population has more than doubled since the 1980s…bouncing back from when Adirondackers used to shoot them for sport, because they ate the same fish humans also used to catch…and then there was also the DDT poisoning in the 1940s and 50s that also killed them off. Yet, though loons have bounced back, there’s still today’s mercury poisoning. More than half of all male Adirondack loons have a moderate-to-high risk of mercury poisoning. This is not a good thing! The weird-assed thing about mercury poisoning and loons, is that mercury turns the birds into “bad parents” and causes them to produce fewer eggs. The affected loons also end up not spending the needed time in their nests keeping their eggs warm, then don’t take care of their chicks when they hatch…sometimes flat-out abandoning them altogether. Mercury is a neurotoxin, so it depresses the loons, makes them lethargic.

But, doom and gloom aside, loons, author William H.H. Murray wrote in 1869 that loons are “are the shyest and most expert swimmers of all waterfowl.” Loons can weigh up to 14 pounds and have serrated bills that can tear into anything it clamps down on. And, boy, can they put up a fight! According to the October 2013 Adirondack Life article, “Loonscape,” Gary Lee (an ex-NYS Forest Ranger) says, “Anything the can get hold of, they’ll bite it.” Lee says that during his work with them he’s been bitten on the forearm and thigh and they’ve gnawed on his pockets and jacket hems. In Lee’s own words, a male once gave him “a pretty good gash” another time.

The name “loon” comes from old English (“lumme” or “lummox“) or Scandinavian (“lum“), meaning “awkward” or “clumsy.” Their feet are located at the back of their body, so they don’t get around well on land, and their take-offs from water can be a bit clumsy. But here are some other neat facts about loons:

They love to hang out on the water all day with their best buds!

They have the coolest calls! Their hoots and tremelos make you go introspective…especially when you hear them at night or early, early morning…with a wispy fog on the lake before you….

They live almost exclusively on water…they avoid land except to nest and mate.

They dive under water and can hold their breath for 90 seconds! Dive down as deep as 200 feet!

Have a cool, red eyes that change in intensity…brighter when mating or defending their territory! Annnd this (somehow) helps them see underwater.

Loons carry their babies on their backs—which is so neat! What a neat ride on a lake, no?

I already mentioned they can weigh as much as a cat, which is because they have solid bones [versus hollow ones most birds have]. Besides allowing them dive under water, the heavy bones also allows them to lay lower in the water when floating. Kinda a real “badass” look!

And loons are one of the older species of birds: over 100 millions years old. Sure, they’re all supposed to have descended from the dinosaurs, but still, they’re an older species of dinosaur—I mean bird…

So, there’s a lot to like about loons and how they’re so scrappy and substantial in form, which I feel models the books I put out…scrappy and haunting…diving under the obvious into the depths of life. And how cool to meet up with some friends along the way and hang out and tell stories! And the gnarly red eyes…the tremelos of thoughts that make you think a little deeper into your own souls….

Loons. I love em.

Wailing Loon Horizontal Red Eye (F. P. Dorchak, Lon Kirschner)
Wailing Loon Horizontal Red Eye (F. P. Dorchak, Lon Kirschner)
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Update on WIP: Second Set of Comments In!

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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!

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Update on WIP: First Comments In!

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Not Out Of The Woods Yet. (By Galatà Maria Grazia [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons)
Not Out Of The Woods Yet. (By Galatà Maria Grazia [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons)
I just received my first set of comments in on my WIP, and wow, I am so humbled and honored by this reader’s thoughts—and, well, praise—for the work-in-question! My head’s still spinning! I still have three other’s inputs I’m awaiting, but this first set of comments are quite encouraging!

So, here are some comments from Edie Scott, who has graciously allowed me to reprint her comments and use her name. Edie is a big reader across all genres. After she had finished reading my WIP, I’d sent her some questions to help me assess the whole effort. I’ve included some my questions (the others give away too much of the story, so I left them out of this post) where necessary, and deleted content that would give away too much of the story or is of a more personal note:

Overall: Edie says: “Well, I have to say that this story really was very impacting….”

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

Answer: Everything fit so well. To use an old cliché, it fit like a glove. There was no getting lost in the “action,” there were no questions and no left over ideas just hanging out there. The story certainly required the reader to “get lost” in the book or they would lose so much of the story line, but this fit…perfect!!!

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: I think if you would have been less graphic the story would have been less intriguing and less grabbing. I honestly felt the story grab me from my current reality into what was truly happening in this guy’s mind. <Deleted material> the book was one I couldn’t put down…the other “scenes” <deleted material> detailing and deepening the storyline….

Question: The ending make sense?

Answer: The ending shocked me to be honest with you and that is why I think it was awesome! I expected the story to just continue how it was <deleted content>. However, the ending you chose almost made me want to stand up and cheer for Benjamin…it actually made me feel happy and excited for him.

Question: Any other comments?

Answer: I saw this question last night and gave it a lot of thought. I’m not one to tell you what you can do better because in all honesty what you do is great. You have gone so out of your comfort zone and so far out of the box with this one and then to have it turn out so intriguingly and mind-bogglingly, what could you possibly do to make it better?

I think you actually are successful with this new path…to me because the broad difference between what you are used to and what this book entails…that should totally boost your confidence to write anything you want! That’s the idea of a great author…a person who can write variety and be brave enough to embark on an entirely different story line…your you…I can never think of any kind of criticism, constructive or otherwise…I just love what you write.

***

Thank you, Edie, for all your support and generous words!

As mentioned, I still have to receive additional comments from three 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 release it to the world. I’m still hoping for a July/August 2015 release!

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Released: Psychic—The Ultimate Conspiracy Theory!

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© Psychic (F. P. Dorchak and Duvall Design, coming mid-2014)
© Psychic (F. P. Dorchak and Duvall Design, coming mid-2014)

A hotline psychic.

Ghost children.

A lost teenager.

JFK.

A man-in-black.

Remote viewers.

A Man With No Name.

The 1990s.

After 20 years, it’s finally making it out into the world!

Psychic.

I started with the idea and began taking notes and research and all that back in 1994. I started actually writing the book in earnest, in 2000. And now—in 2014—Psychic is finally released! My longest (published) work so far, at 328 pages. It has been a long, hard road, and (I must say) I’m quite happy with the result…looking forward to how it will be received!

Psychic is now available at both the  CreateSpace eStore and Amazon.com. It will be available at the following outlets in the following timeframes:

  • Amazon.com: 3-5 Business Days (already available!)
  • Amazon Europe: 3-5 Business Days
  • Expanded Distribution channels: 6-8 Weeks

I’ve talked about this a little before (I’m sure, in some other post besides this one, but can’t seem to find it…), but Psychic was not an “easy” book. No, not at all. Nearly all of my manuscript first drafts were “easy” in that I just wrote them out—without an outline—I’d just sit down, put my fingers to the keyboard, and out came the story. I like to say I “vomit out” first drafts (ask me about my “fish” story—I love to tell it!). First drafts have taken me about a month or less, but it would be in the next several years where I’d work and rework the heck out of those manuscripts. None of them was any trouble, though…it was just the necessary mechanics of putting in the time, the research, the effort.

Psychic was different.

To be honest, it was a slog. Even as I wrote the very first words, the first draft, it was like running through water…or (more like) a swamp. I can’t explain it. It was the first manuscript that took any real effort on my part. And the antagonist, Victor NMI Black…he actually scared me. Whether or not it was the actual character or the idea of such an evil man like him possibly existing out there (physically or nonphysically…). I remember taking a walk one day, in the brilliant Colorado daylight, thinking about this guy…how nasty and “evil” he was…and actually got nervous…felt…uneasy—even while chiding myself in broad daylight that he was just a frigging character in a novel I had created, and I had control over him….

But did I…really?

The very idea of this guy scared me. He was flat-out mean. It surprised me that feeling of momentary fear I felt during that walk. To the story, well, that will remain to be seen from its readers if I did the proper job of transferring that image into the novel,  but, to me, on a nonphysical, conceptual level, this character was extremely distasteful and scary.

It was like the idea of him was far too real.

Anyway, it’s not so much that I had “problems” with the story, the work, or anything “about” it, it’s just that it had a totally different energy about it. The novel involves messing around with the nonphysical in the physical. About fucking around with our sense of what’s real and what’s not. Our ability to utilize abilities that might well be considered out of our moral range. Not to mention such considerations, like, can facts change? If I really wanted to get all weird about it—all conspiracy theory on your asses—it was almost as if there really was some weird psychic conspiracy trying to keep this novel from coming out…actively and continually interdicting and meaconing me away from my efforts….

But I don’t really believe that.

Not now.

<checking outside my office…the rest of the house…all locks are locked—it is oh-dark-thirty right now….>

Sure, such considerations and stories make for great promotional copy, but the reality of it is that each book is different. Each book has its own energy, and given the nature of the story, what I experienced was and is totally in keeping with the nature of the story’s energy. The whole absolute weirdness of it all. In fact, while working on the formatting of the manuscript for upload, my formatter, Pam Headrick (of A Thirsty Mind), sent me a strange e-mail: “Wow, Frank, what did you do?” She mentioned that there were all kinds of “odd anchors” and “strange text placement,” to which I replied I’d forgotten how I’d actually had problems with the file months ago (after a system upgrade) and had to save the file in a slightly different format to get it to work. How the system kept hanging and saves took, like, 15 minutes!

Find your happy place…find your happy place….

Psychic is “an extension” of Sleepwalkers. I could call it a series, but I don’t know that that would be quite right. Sleepwalkers is quite a different book than Psychic. Sleepwalkers is a pleasant metaphysical road trip, funny, philosophical, even a bit Richard Bach-ish, while Psychic is a nasty trip on the wild side of psychic activity. More dense. I’d use the term “complicated” but am finding that term overused and trite. And the only character common to both novels is the Man With No Name. Granted, perhaps less has been made of calling a collection of books “a series,” but I just prefer to think of them as “related.” Maybe I’m just resistant to the whole “series thing,” given how trad publishing is glutting the market with them, I don’t know (and I’m really resistant to being told what to do—real or implied). So…

I’ll bill Psychic as the ultimate conspiracy theory, and leave it as that.

It’s an alternate reality not only to Sleepwalkers (and deals with the Man With No Name’s origins) but to our “known” reality. Deals with the dark side of life we may never really know about…what goes on in the shadows of our so-called truths….

It’s about obfuscation.

The evil men can do.

Perceptions.

Probabilities.

Metaphysics.

Have you ever felt a different version of you (the “you,” here and now, not in some other reincarnational existence) did something else? Behaved differently? Maybe even died earlier than the you reading this, now?

What do we really know about our reality? Our facts? How aware are we of what we think we know? How much of what we hear and read are true—or were true at some point?

Do we notice when things…change?

Or do we dismiss the seeming inconsistencies in our lives and immediately discount them, because they don’t make sense with everything else we think we know and see in our lives? What we think is a solid “fact”? Hey, I put my ring right there—where the hell is it?

Psychic says, don’t discount this stuff. Do not ignore. Pay attention. The devil is in the details. Do you absolutely remember something that is different from what everyone around you is remembering? I’m telling you, no, you may not be crazy.

Pay attention.

One might well ask: so what? What does it all mean and why should I care? Can we actually do anything about any of this? Can we effect any real change in a world that seems to be running amok?

The easy answer to that is that I’m an eternal optimist. I’ve plugged away at this novel for 14 years of my life, 20, in one way or the other. I always believe we can effect good and positive change in the world…and I believe once you’re made aware of “things,” made aware that, yes, facts really can change—that each and every one of us can change them—it opens up a new, exciting world for all of us. And…

What do you believe?

Will Psychic change the way you believe? How you perceive the world? Your life? That’s up to each reader. Life is all about beliefs.

What we believe drives how we behave.

In the end, Psychic is “just” a novel. It’s fiction. Victor Black…fictional. Yes, there are lots of facts in there, even a few facts from my own life. Weirdness, like the ring scene (yes, that really did happen, as did another similar experience, “The Grape“). And the “rototiller” and “Woomera” scenes. Facts, as you’ll see, aren’t always what they appear to be…if they ever were.

I do have a bunch of people to thank in getting Psychic released, and they’re all on my Acknowledgement page in the book, but I have to spotlight a couple of them: lots of thanks to Karen Duvall, of Duvall Design for the cover, to Pam Headrick, of A Thirsty Mind Book Design, for formatting the files…and to Joyce Combs and Mandy Pratt for copyediting and proofreading! With all the back and forth I’ve done, initially setting the novel in milieus, like 2005, then updating it for the likes of (man…the years, they pass by oh-so-quickly…) 2007, 2010, 2012, and even 2014…I finally settled upon 1994. Adding and removing all the details  for each of those years was time consuming, to say the least, and it was here that Mandy did a great job keeping me on track and proofing my work!

I am currently only doing a trade paperback book. I find that e-books really aren’t selling all that great (for me), so am putting off creating those for later. So, don’t despair, at some point in the future, I’ll do the e-book version.

Where do I go from here?

I do still have some unreleased work in the various dark places within which I keep things like these, and will be revisiting yet another one. This one will be #7 in my list. Yeah, the “unnamed” one. We’ll see how that one goes and whether or not it will get released. After that one, I may get back to work on the one I started in 2011 (#11), but that’s so far into the future and who knows what the “facts” will be by that time…where I will be in my probable and alternate realities…but I do have a ton of work to keep me busy for a number of years, and would even love to compile a collection of my short stories….

With any of my work, feel free to pass on any of the graphics from my blog posts, tweets, Pinterest, et cetera (though I ask that you render proper attribution). If you need a book or a speaker at your local library, book club, or writer’s group, either in person or via phone/Skype, please, feel free to contact me, at fpdorchak “at” fpdorchak dot com (or leave a comment in a blog post). Post reviews at your favorite websites (if you’d like a book for a book review, please contact me at the above email). Need to fill a blog post? Interview me! Direct me to a library and I’ll send them some free copies. If you come up with any ideas, again, contact me at the above e-mail address. If you’d like a signed copy, send it to the following address: F. P. Dorchak, P. O. Box 49393, Colorado Springs, CO 80949. Take my books to work or the gym and flaunt their covers! Tweet and blog about them! Any way you can all help out to get the word out is hugely appreciated! Mention me to radio shows. Local writer conferences. Reader groups. Send my social media links.

As always, thank you for all your support! I can’t thank you all enough! Publishing is a team effort, and I always manage to find a great team—but part of that team is also the readers! I love what I’m doing and all the support I’m getting from all of you!

And again…pay attention to the details of your lives…let nothing escape your notice, however “insignificant” those details may appear.

What does it all mean?

I think that’s up to each of us to figure out.

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Psychic Cover "Flat" (© F. P. Dorchak and Duvall Design, 2014)
Psychic Cover “Flat” (© F. P. Dorchak and Duvall Design, 2014)

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