Exodus 2022 tour - Guest post by Kenneth G. Bennett

Today I'm pleased to have a guest stopping in. Fellow Booktrope author Kenneth G. Bennett is here as part of his Exodus 2022 tour. He'll be talking about how his story stands out. And make sure you scroll all the way to the bottom - where there'll be information about a cool giveaway.

So take it away, Kenneth.

Thank you for the opportunity to appear in a guest post on your blog! I really appreciate it.

Your question: “Describe how your story stands out,” is a tough one. I’m so close to the damn thing that it’s tough to answer with any objectivity. That said, I believe (hope) EXODUS 2022 might stand out for a few reasons:

• The novel is a unique mix of genres: science fiction, fantasy, thriller, wilderness adventure and psycho-drama.
• The pace is fast and relentless.
• The story is different and (according to early readers) completely unpredictable.

Speaking of those wonderful early readers—I think this review on Amazon may answer your question more eloquently than I can:

Science fiction has been called the "literature of ideas" and I love SF novels that make me think. To me, the best SF uses advanced science or otherworldly elements to offer a new perspective on our own world. This is precisely what "Exodus 2022" does -- elegantly and without sacrificing a compelling plot nor fully-realized characters.

Without giving away the big mystery of the story (and it's a shocker), let's just say that author Kenneth Bennett weaves a fast-moving adventure tale filled with plot twists, vivid scenes full of drama and conflict, and sharply-drawn characters (including the tragic protagonist Joe Stanton, a man who starts off seemingly insane and hallucinating). But the real magic resonates within the themes and ideas of the novel. Quite simply "Exodus 2022" makes you think -- by positing a near-future where the link between humankind and the natural world is about to be changed forever.

If you like the classic sci-fi of the 1960s and 1970s (Bradbury, Heinlein, Asimov, Ellison, Dick, et. al.), grab a copy of "Exodus 2022" and prepare to go on a thinking-person's adventure. Better get, gather some like-minded sci-fi fans so you can all read and discuss this thought-provoking novel.

Thank you and best wishes,

Kenneth G. Bennett

Book details

Title: EXODUS 2022
Author: Kenneth G. Bennett
Genre: Sci-Fi Thriller (pre-apocalypse)
Audience: NA/Adult
Release date: May 20th, 2014
Publisher: Booktrope Publishing

Summary

 

Joe Stanton is in agony. Out of his mind over the death of his young daughter. Or so it seems.

Unable to contain his grief, Joe loses control in public, screaming his daughter’s name and causing a huge scene at a hotel on San Juan Island in Washington State. Thing is, Joe Stanton doesn’t have a daughter. Never did. And when the authorities arrive they blame the 28-year-old’s outburst on drugs.

What they don’t yet know is that others up and down the Pacific coast—from the Bering Sea to the Puget Sound—are suffering identical, always fatal mental breakdowns.

With the help of his girlfriend—the woman he loves and dreams of marrying—Joe struggles to unravel the meaning of the hallucination destroying his mind. As the couple begins to perceive its significance—and Joe’s role in a looming global calamity—they must also outwit a billionaire weapons contractor bent on exploiting Joe’s newfound understanding of the cosmos, and outlast the time bomb ticking in Joe’s brain. 

About the author

Kenneth G. Bennett is the author of the young adult novels, THE GAIA WARS and BATTLE FOR CASCADIA, and the new sci-fi thriller, EXODUS 2022. A wilderness enthusiast who loves backpacking, skiing and kayaking, Ken enjoys mysteries, science fiction, action adventure stories and, most especially, novels that explore the relationship between humans and the wild. He lives on an island in the Pacific Northwest with his wife and son and two hyperactive Australian Shepherds.

THE GAIA WARS series was optioned for film by Identity Films, LA in 2012, and both GAIA and BATTLE have been featured as Top 100 Bestsellers in Teen Literature and Fiction on Amazon. Kirkus Reviews called THE GAIA WARS “A solid first entry of a promising, imaginative new young-adult fantasy series featuring a well-crafted character.”

Links

Book links:
GR: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20641630-exodus-2022
LibraryThing: https://www.librarything.com/work/14672242
Shelfari: http://www.shelfari.com/books/37400967/Exodus-2022

Excerpt: http://www.kennethgbennettbooks.com/2014/01/26/EXODUS-2022-a-new-sci-fi-thriller-coming-may-2014/

Buy links:
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Exodus-2022-Kenneth-G-Bennett-ebook/dp/B00IRL8O2U/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1394549551&sr=8-1&keywords=exodus+2022

Author links:
website: http://www.kennethgbennettbooks.com
GR: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5131305.Kenneth_G_Bennett
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Exodus2022
Twitter: @kennethgbennett 

Giveaway 

Kenneth is offering the chance to win a Kindle Fire or 15 signed paperbacks. All you need to do is enter the giveaway below. Good luck.
  a Rafflecopter giveaway

Lightness and melancholy

Today, I'm going to take one of my regular little excursions into the world of music.

I know - for someone who is supposed to be a writer, I seem to veer off into musical territory quite a bit. Truth is, I'd really love to be a muso. Unfortunately, a fairly complete lack of musical talent, coupled with a (supposed) talent in the writing area pushed me this way instead. Still, in my writing, I like to take inspiration from the musical side.

Anyway, the subject for this post was inspired by a music review a read in a newspaper a few years back. Can't remember what paper. Can't even remember what album (or band) was being reviewed. But it did make a point that has kind of stuck with me.

It talked about the idea of mixing lightness and melancholy to create music that was both engaging and bright while having a kind of inner depth. And it got me thinking about the kind of music I like, and how that is something I could say for a lot of it. Bands like Crowded House or R.E.M. (I know, I'm definitely showing my age and era) seemed to be masters of this style, making their music so engaging on so many levels. Even a supposedly hard rock band like Cold Chisel had an under-appreciated talent for mixing these two modes in a lot of their most enduring material.

Which leads back to the writing. I'm not sure it's particularly conscious but I can see how the lightness and melancholy thing fits a lot of my writing. Even though most of my writing could be broadly cast as humour, there is that somewhat melancholy thread to it.

I think particularly of the adventures of my good friend, Neville Lansdowne. He has odd adventures and meets very peculiar people. But there is another side to these stories as well. He's often alone, in strange and unfamiliar circumstances, particularly at the beginning. I think it's this touch of melancholy that adds a bit of depth and (dare I say) humanity to what would otherwise be strange and whacky stories.

I could apply this to other stories, such as Magnus Opum, where Magnus is struggling to understand the world he lives in, and who are and aren't his friends. He often feels sad and alone as he negotiates his adventure. And it's also there in my new picture book (out in just a few weeks) Thomas and the Tiger-Turtle. The turtle is both a comic figure but also at times a sad one too.

So there you have another one of my theories. Lightness and melancholy. It works a treat in music. And it's a really effective thing to include in a story as well. 

What goes onto the back of the book?

One of the questions that we authors often face in interviews (or wherever) is "How long have you been a writer). For me, it's quite easy to answer. I actually have the evidence. Let me explain.

I started writing books when I was about five. I know, because I still have the books. Well, when I say "books" I mean pieces of paper stapled together, but for a five year old, I reckon that totally counts as a legitimate book.

I used to write books about everything. If I spent a day out at the park, I wrote a book about it. If I went on a family outing, I wrote a book about it. Whatever happened in my life would be the inspiration for a book (to be honest, I'm not sure things are any different now).

These books were generally scrawly drawn pictures (hey, I said I was a writer - I never said I was an artist) with a minimum of text (hey, I was five years old). However, there was one thing I always put a heap of effort into. The back covers.

Then (as now) I saw the back cover of my books as a wonderful marketing opportunity (not that I knew what marketing opportunities were back then). Inspired I think by Little Golden Books, I used to draw the covers of all my other books onto each back cover. Which ultimately led to a problems.

With every book that I wrote, I had more books I had to add to the back cover. But not only that. I also had to go back to every other book I'd written so I could add my new book to their back covers. This began to get pretty time-consuming. After a while, I think I was spending significantly more time updating back covers than I was writing new books. Some of the later books were barely more than two pages in length. I'm pretty sure this is what ultimately ended my first attempt at becoming a writer.

This came back to my recently, after I put out my last novella, Scrawling. Now being so aware of the potential for marketing in a book's back matter, I spent quite a bit of time not only placing information about my other books into it but also going back to the other books to add info about Scrawling. It gave me a very strange feeling of deja-vu.

Funny how the more things change, the more things stay the same. 

But today I'm going to be myself

A couple of weeks ago, I did a post about how sometimes I've thought about being someone else, or using a different name for my public persona as a writer. That's why there's a touch of irony in what I'm about to announce.

For the last three years, the title of this blog has been Dag-Lit Central. I thought it was a kind of fun idea - maybe even a bit of a conversation starter. And yes, it did actually start one or two conversations. But not a lot more than that.

I'm now moving into a new phase in my career (or whatever you want to call it) as a writer. My focus is less on self-publishing and more on working with publishers - especially with the re-release of Magnus Opum now hopefully only a few weeks away, and Thomas and the Tiger-Turtle due out in mid May. So I think it's time to say goodbye to Dag-Lit Central. From now onwards, I'm putting my own name up in lights and proudly proclaiming myself. You'll see there's a new link to access this site, and a new title to go along with it.

It doesn't mean I'll be changing too much. I'll still be just as daggy as before. I'll still try to write stories and posts that will put a smile on your face and maybe get you to see things a little bit differently. But I'll do that under my own name. I feel kind of proud about it.

Anyway, the good news is, the old Dag-Lit Central link will continue to work for a while. I'm not sure what will happen to this site next. It's likely there will be some upgrading, but I'm hoping it will never get too slick. I'd like to keep this as a fun, down-to-earth kind of place where I can talk about my books and other stuff that interests (or obsesses) me.

It's all a little bit exciting. Hope you have a great week too. 

Fame has looked me in the eye - and then walked away

I'm not famous. Not even close. Not even close to close.

Would I like to be famous? To be honest, I'm not sure. I would like to be successful. I would like to be able to do the things I like to do (which is primarily writing I suppose) well enough that I could make a good living out of them. I don't need to be rich. And I certainly don't have any desire to be mobbed by fans every time I go to the shop to buy a loaf of bread. So if that's what being famous means, I'm not sure if it's for me.

Sometimes, I like to reflect on those moments when fame has approached a little bit close. Being in Australia, I don't often get an opportunity to have access to the most famous of the famous. But I have had a few moments.

A number of those have involved sports stars (and here in Australia, that's kind of up at the top rung of famousness). As a kid, while shopping for a cricket bat, I was once served by a footballer who is often spoken about as the finest player of his era (yes, back in the '80s, even the best Australian footballers needed day jobs). I never ended up buying the bat, but I did get to feel very connected to a genuine sporting great.

Speaking of footballers, one of my physical education teachers at school was the captain of one of the top grade football teams. And a hell of a nice fellow to boot. Years later, my family ambushed him at an awards night and even with the cameras clicking, he was happy to stop for a moment and say g'day.

I've had my moments in the writing sphere as well. I guess the biggest one was actually getting close to one of my real heroes as a writer, the late (and lamented) Douglas Adams. It was at a literary lunch many years ago and the highlight was definitely when I got him to sign my old and dog-eared edition of Hitch-Hikers Guide. It's still a prized possession.

It's nice to think that somebody like myself can have these little brushes with fame. Who knows, maybe one day people will be excited to have lunch with me, and they'll line up to get my (admittedly rather pathetic and scrawly) autograph on their copy of one of my books.

Like I say, I have no great desire to be famous, but it would be kind of nice. 

Sometimes I've thought about being someone else

I don't love my name. I suppose over the years I've kind of gotten used to it. But still, there are times when it irks me.

Firstly, it's too long. Three syllables is far too many for something as simple as a name. I think two is fine, and one would be even better.

Secondly, nobody seems to know how to spell it. You wouldn't believe the number of different combinations there are out there. O's instead of A's, and H's cropping up in all sorts of strange places. And the worst part is, because people have no idea how to spell it, there are now kids being born who officially have their name spelt incorrectly. It's extremely frustrating.

Thirdly, it seems to be one of those names that is always used for nerdy sorts of characters. I have no idea why. There doesn't seem to be anything inherently nerdy about it (except possibly its length). But whenever you have a character who wears glasses and a vest and long socks under shorts, he always seems to be called Jonathan.

In my younger years, I have thought of changing it. In my older years, I've thought of coming up with a pseudonym, just for the writing.

I've considered using my middle name, David, which I think is a good, solid, easy to spell, and not too long kind of name. David Gould. I could just see it on those book covers. Has a nice ring to it.

I've also thought of being a bit more creative. I've thought of reversing the name and then messing around with it a bit, so it sounded kind of presentable. The result I came up with was Nathan Ojdluog.  Doesn't sound too bad. Little bit exotic. For a while, I thought it might have some potential.

But in the end, I went with my name as given. I can't even tell you why. Maybe I've become a bit more used to it over the years. Maybe I really wasn't that imaginative. Or maybe, it's because I feel like my books are a big part of me, and I wanted to be able to identify myself with them as fully as I could.

No idea really. In the end, whether they were written by Nathan or David or Jonathan, they're still the same books. I hope you like them. 

Words are my playthings

I'm a great big kid at heart.

Not that that should come as any great surprise to you. I'm kind of banging on about it all the time. What it does mean though is that, like any big kid, I like to play. And the things I like to play with the most are words.

Words are great. They're the best toys that anybody could have to play with. There are so many different things you can do with them. They're so flexible and malleable. As a writer, there's nothing more fun than figuring out the different sorts of games I can play with them. In fact, that's pretty much the theme of the most recent book I published, Scrawling.

Obviously, one of the most basic things you can do are simple puns. I love puns. I'm constantly making up puns.And the more groan-inducing they are, the better. In fact, many people say that spending too much time with me is sheer pun-ishment (cue loud groan).

It's actually funny how, when I looked back through my books, I noticed there actually weren't a lot of puns in there. I was really pleased to rectify that in Scrawling, where puns play quite a substantial role in at least one chapter.

Beyond the meaning of words, sometimes it's just fun to play with the sounds of words. That's where writing within the genre of fantasy can be especially rewarding. It's a genre where making up new words is not just accepted, it's actually pretty much demanded. I'm always having fun making words up. Words for new characters, or strange locales, or any kind of fantastical element or custom. Sometimes I'll try to come up with something where the sounds of the syllables in the word reflect somehow on what that word is describing. But other times, I'll just bang my fingers on the keyboard and see what comes up. Sometimes, the more unpronounceable, the better.

There's one other game in particular that I like to play - spoonerisms. I'll often just throw them into ceneral gonversation. I like to see the looks on people's faces as they gradually figure it out. I even managed to use it (sort of) for a book title. Magnus Opum is I suppose some sort of reverse spoonerism, where it's the last letters in the words that are swapped, rather than the first.

There are lots of other different types of games you can play with words - the fun never ends. Hopefully, you'll also have a bit of time for fun this week.