A Fateful Turn of Events

So I suppose you have been wondering why I haven't had any book or contract news lately. The reason is pretty simple, and kinda big.

As you remember we had an agreement early in the year with HarperCollins/Voyager Books to publish Impulse and two other books in The Lightship Chronicles Series, subject to our reaching terms on a contract. The last 5-6 months have involved that contract negotiation and there were issues with the contract that both sides struggled to resolve. During the negotiations process I was informed that Will Hinton, the editor that had acquired my book, was leaving Harper for Orbit Books. This complicated things.

Subsequent to that Joshua was in contact with major overseas publishers about Impulse and the series, and last month we received an additional offer from Del Rey in the UK (A division of Random House) for Exclusive UK, British Commonwealth (including Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India & Singapore) and European rights. This complicated our negotiations further with Harper, as they wished to retain all Worldwide English rights. So there has been a general back and forth on the subjects at hand, and Harper essentially refused to budge on certain key issues.

This has eventually led me (with Joshua’s advice) to the decision to reject the deal offered by Harper and accept the one offered by Del Rey/Random House UK. The upshot of this is that I will now have the book published in the UK and other English-speaking countries, but as of now I have no deal for publication in the US. There are options for US publication, and Joshua will be working faithfully on those, but for now I am a Del Rey UK author.

The Del Rey offer is in fact larger in terms of finances than the Harper offer was, so that is an advantage. Also, the chance to get another US deal could be a future financial benefit. But the main reason I have taken this decision is the excitement and enthusiasm Del Rey UK has for my book and series. They could not have been kinder with their words in their offer letter.

Usually these things work out the other way around, with a US deal first and an overseas deal (or overseas publication) second. This is uncharted territory for me and certainly not what I planned, but it is a good position to be in. I have a deal with a major publisher who loves my books!

Another big factor in my decision was the departure of Will Hinton from Harper. I always felt he had a special enthusiasm for the book, and when he left I felt some of that enthusiasm went with him. I would have loved to work with Will and Harper on making the books special, but sadly that isn't going to happen. Maybe I will be a star author in Europe and an unknown in the US. Who knows how it will all work out? All I know is that I'm looking forward to the journey. I am certainly getting eye-opening experience in the business of writing.

More updates as events warrant.

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Publication Update

Still no news to report on the publishing front, other than The Lightship Chronicles series is still in final negotiations. The publisher has kicked in a pretty nice perk, so I think we are getting closer to a final agreement.

Sorry I have no other news I can report, but just to say when all is done, there will be some interesting posts about the writing biz coming up.

Stay tuned.

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Star Trek Into Darkness Review

4.5 out of 5

I saw Star Trek Into Darkness last night in 3D IMAX, and all I can say is... don't see the movie in 3D IMAX. The fact is that this format blows, and this movie was not really shot in 3D, so there is no point in seeing it in that format. My favorite format right now is 2D IMAX, which I saw "Oblivion" in a couple weeks ago.

The big questions are does this movie live up to the hype? The answer to that is yes. The other big question is does it live up to it's title? The answer to that is emphatically NO.

When producer JJ Abrams tacked on Into Darkness to his movie's title, I expected something that would drag our main characters (Kirk, Spock, and McCoy) into deep moral conflicts that would test them to their core. The script pays a lot of lip service to this idea, and provides a great vehicle in villian "John Harrison" (AKA **** ******* *****) to drag this out, but never really fulfills, mainly due to a secondary villian that seems unnecessary to the main plot and just tends to distract.

The movie would have been much stronger in my opinion if they had simply dispatched with the other villian and built to a crescendo conflict between "Harrison" and the Holy Trinity of Kirk/Spock/McCoy. Instead we have a long series of terrific action sequences that lead to fight after fight, but not really to a satisfying end. We could have seen Kirk and co. delve into the deepest reaches of their souls and then crawl back out again, battered, bruised, but not beaten, and evolved to the point that they were now ready for what's "out there" on their coming five-year mission. So in that way the film is not totally satisfying.

Having said all that, this is a terrific movie. Entertaining, funny, thick with plot, with echoes and overtones of a future past not yet lived by our heroes. Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto and Bruce Greenwood are once again terrific and Zoe Saldana is very funny, but sadly Karl Urban isn't given enough to do, and even reaches a point of self-parody where Kirk tells him to "stop speaking in metaphors". Indeed. The co-star who gets dealt the best role is undoubtedly Simon Pegg as Scotty, who is terrific. Sulu and Checkov, well they're just kinda there.

Alice Eve's Dr. Carol Marcus is lovely to look at and she can act as well. It looks like she'll be staying on with the cast as science officer (Spock is just First Officer) and that's fine as the cast needed a second female lead and Kirk has already chased Nurse Chapel off to some distant outpost with his sexual antics.

To sum up, Into Darkness plays very much like the second act in a three act play, turning our story and characters in a different direction than they might otherwise have gone. Let's hope now that they've fully embarked on their five year mission that the next story turns more to a science fiction tale rather than a series of stupendous action sequences wrapped up in a sci-fi setting. And let's also hope they don't wait four more years to make the next one.

Contracts, Contracts

There is more news coming on the contract front, surprising news is all I will say, but good news nonetheless. As Tom Petty said, The Waiting is the hardest part.

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Some News On The Con Front

Pleased to announce that I will be a panelist at Orycon 35 in Portland on November 8-10th, 2013. This is really the start of my paneling as a pro, and I'm excited about it.

Most likely I will be on some Sci-fi panels or Space Opera, also possibly "getting an agent/selling your book" type stuff. Or I could end up on the vampire panels, who knows?

Anyway, Orycon is a fun con and well-run. Look forward to perhaps seeing some of you there and by then hopefully I will have much more news on the Lightship Chronicles front and of course I will be promoting SPEEDWING as well. Should be fun!

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Flattering Words

I told you I had some awesome news on Friday, and I wanted to share the gist of the news without giving away any sensitive details. Nothing is done yet, but again, the words are very flattering.

"Dear XXXX,

I was very excited to hear about IMPULSE by Dave Bara when we met the other week, and I have to say I thought it was a fantastic read! I’m a huge fan of military space opera and I think the author has done something very special here. A wonderful blend of military action and world building, with a great core group of characters and plenty of scope for revealing more about their galaxy as the series moves on.

I’m delighted to say the response internally has been equally enthusiastic, with lots of support from the MD and Publisher to sales, marketing and PR. With the list now building and a great line up for the next few years, we feel Dave would be a perfect fit, and The Lightship Chronicles would find an important place on our list as our first big series of it’s type.

XXXXXXXXXXX...

Our initial publishing strategy would be to publish one book a year starting in 2014, preferably to tie in with the World Science Fiction Convention in London... xxxxx"

As I said, very flattering words. Fingers crossed that all works out for the best.

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More AMAZING News From My Agent Regarding IMPULSE

Wow, more AMAZING news from my agent Joshua this morning! Can't reveal details, but I want to thank him for working so hard on my behalf! Details to come, hopefully soon! Can't talk about it yet but I am over the moon and VERY flattered!

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A Word About Titles

So some of you know that my original title for this novel was "Reunion Day". The title was related to a fictitious future holiday that celebrated the return of the Earth Historians to both worlds of the Union, Quantar and Carinthia.

When I started the rewrite of RD, I ended up deleting the holiday references as I felt they were perhaps too sentimental and not central to the story. Also, the idea of Reunion Day was that the events of the novel took place over the course of a full year, from one holiday to the other. Based on some of the comments I had received from editors I decided to tighten the timeline of the book considerably, to about a month. That of course meant I had to rethink my title.

I came up with "Impulse: The Lightship Chronicles, Vol. 1" as a way of tying the series to each of the Lightships, the main weapons of defense for the Union Navy. Vol. 1 is really the story of Impulse, as that is the ship our hero first serves on, and ends up on a quest to rescue. Thus the second book would be "Starbound" (the name of Quantar's primary Lighship) and the third would potentially be "Resolution", which has meaning both as the end to the trilogy and the conclusion of our hero's journey, as well as the fulfillment of his resolution to the world of Levant and a certain beautiful princess he has promised to marry. But we get ahead of ourselves.

This weekend while at the bookstore, my brother pointed to a new book release from Tor Books (SF) by Steven Gould, titled "Impulse" [Sigh]. And then there was the 2010 book by Joe Haldeman titled "Starbound", part of his "Marsbound" and "Earthbound" series. [double sigh] Combine that with series by Jack Campbell which use titles like "Dauntless", "Fearless", and "Valiant", and Mike Shepherd ("Intrepid", "Defiant") and you've quickly cut into my list of book titles using this method.

In the end, I suppose it will be a marketing decision. As of now, I'm racking my brain trying to come up with another option. I guess the moral of the story is, don't get attached to your titles.

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Facebook Author Page

So I've started a Facebook author page and will be doing much of my future blogging there. Please follow and enjoy:

https://www.facebook.com/davebaraauthor?ref=hl

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So It's Monday...

And I suppose I should make some comments about the book deal process. As of now, I have one offer from a major publisher on IMPULSE, one "what would you need" inquiry from a second publisher, and a third that's trying to decide if they are in or not (on IMPULSE). In the latter case I think it's a situation where the editor in question is looking to get permission from his boss to proceed.

Now there are some complications. The offer from Publisher No.1 is on the IMPULSE version of the manuscript, while the "what would you need" inquiry is on the previous REUNION DAY version. The third is also on the IMPULSE rewrite. The complication comes from the possibility that publisher No. 2 may want the earlier version of the novel (which my agent prefers). If that occurs (and they would get an opportunity to read the IMPULSE version too and decide which one they like better) then I may have to choose between the two versions, and thus, which one to write a sequel too.

For myself I think the IMPULSE version is the stronger book. If all other things are equal, that's the version I'd prefer to go forward with at this point. But the harder decision for me might be choosing between publisher No.1 and publisher No.3. The editor at publisher No. 1 has been very supportive and really likes the book, and I would hate to say no to their offer, which is very good. The editor at publisher No.3 is a friend and someone I know from past writing experiences. He would be harder on the book I think, to make it more like that publisher's regular line (more hard/military SF as opposed to soft/space opera). I have no doubt he would make me a better writer. So choosing between the two would be a tough task. It's not a choice I face yet, but certainly something I have to think about a bit in case it comes to pass.

Obviously, I'll post more as things progress.

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SFF Saturday Snippet

From SPEEDWING:

As I came around the corner I saw an older man with blond hair and gray temples talking to Kozina in hushed tones. She was pointing at a brief she held in her hand as he fended her off with both hands extended.
“Sometimes we don’t get to pick the things our jobs entail, Lieutenant,” I heard him say. She had her back to me and I couldn’t hear her response, but she gestured strongly at him. Just then he looked up and saw me standing outside her cubicle. He shook his head at her and then pointed her towards me.

“That’s an order,” I heard him say, then he walked away as she turned to face me, a grim look on her face. She pulled her jacket down at the waist and then made for me, her head down, holding the brief close to her body.

Whatever was in that brief, I knew it wasn’t good news.

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Submissions Update

It's been a while so I thought I would update you on my novel submissions status. The raw numbers are as follows:

IMPULSE: Still out to 4 publishers, average of 156 days.

VOID SHIP: 6 Publishers, average of 519 days.

REUNION DAY: 2 publishers, (DAW and Tor), 1088 DAYS

ST. COCHRANE'S WORLD: 1 publisher, 101 days.

If you can believe it, it is coming up on 3 YEARS since REUNION DAY was originally submitted to DAW and Tor, and from what Joshua tells me these submissions are still considered active. As such neither of these publsihers has received the rewrite version (IMPULSE) which is out at 4 other majors, having been rejected by 3 at this point (Del Rey, Amazon47North, and Orbit).

VOID SHIP has been forgotten, shelved, or just downright ignored, although I still have some hopes for one of the major publishers. If I hear a NO back from them on IMPULSE, I will likely start submitting VOID SHIP around to other publishers on my own. I never got any help from Joshua on this one, which is a sore point for me.

ST. COCHRANE'S WORLD is my first novel and I've sent that out to Whiskey Creek to see if they have interest. We'll see.

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BSG: Blood and Chrome - Webisodes 1 & 2 Review

Blood and Chrome opens with an action-packed dogfight sequence featuring young hotshot pilot William Adama that could have come right out of my SF novel SPEEDWING. The classic sci-fi trope of a young pilot showing off his skills in what turns out to be a simulation is well carried out. We follow Adama as he makes his way to his new assignment aboard Galactica, there to find out he's been assigned to basically drive a beautiful software engineer and a grizzled veteran of the war on a bus tour of the colonies. Soon however those plans go awry, as the young pilot and his pal Coker are informed of their new, secret orders, a rendevous in deep space with the Battlestar Archeron.

Upon arrival at the rendevous howver they find that Archeron has been ambushed and completely destroyed. Soon they are fired upon by Cylon raiders and, well, the rest will have to wait until next week's thrilling episode.

So let me say a few things about this production. First, I hate, and I mean HATE, watching anything, but especially original, effects-laden sci-fi programming on a computer monitor. The only way to view this kind of program IMO is on a big screen hi-def TV. There are many aspects to the production that are lost in the small display format, especially the dense activity sequences we see on Galactica's hangar deck. I would like the opportunity to see that kind of CGI on the big screen. Ditto the action sequences, too much detail is lost in the mix.

Having said that, I think the idea of a serialized format for Blood and Chrome is not a bad way to present the show at all. Quite frankly it might be a more effective format than the full-one hour episode idea. I do think that a 7 minute sequence is too short, so something more like 15-20 minutes might be more effective. If you could do a show in quarter-hour chunks, you could turn a 13 episode season into a full year of Blood and Chrome episodes.

A more effective way to present it might be as a 15 minute tack-on to SyFy's Friday original programming block, airing it between the first and second airings of shows like Haven, Lost Girl, etc.

But I am parsing here. The best format for Blood and Chrome is simple, air it on the main channel. Let's hope SyFy comes to their senses and moves the show in that direction once the ratings come in for the webisodes, the main channel airing in February, and the DVD/Blueray sales. It's kind of all on us folks.

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The Nightwalk

A bit of fun in honor of Halloween...

Fall forward? No! Fall back? She couldn’t remember! She couldn’t remember!

Sweat poured from her face like the flow of a river. One careless autumn afternoon spent watching football at her boyfriend’s house and now there was no telling what carnage she would leave in her wake as night fell.

Goddamned Daylight Savings Time!

Sadie never knew what she did as a beast of the night, but she knew it couldn’t be good. She rushed headlong through the brush, twigs breaking and brambles sticking at her every step. The pain was bearable, but nothing compared to what she could inflict if her inner monster were unleashed on an unsuspecting campus. She had to make it.

A full harvest moon crested bloody red over the mountains to the East. The first twinge of the ancient pain tugged at her. She stopped and gripped her side, frantic as the pain coursed through her. Her eyes began to fill with blood, blurring her vision as she stumbled on.

She looked skyward again at the rising moon, its color burning like white-hot heat, searing her skin.

I’ll never make the safehouse now.

Dimly she remained aware of the transformation taking place, of clothes ripping and skin peeling off in her wake. Her hands came forward as she lunged to the ground on all fours, fierce claws replacing what once were fingers. She stopped and looked skyward, letting out a final howl of agony as the moonlight tortured her.

The beast within was released.

She ambled towards the lights of the dorm, slinking low to the ground and hiding beneath a juniper hedge that lined the walkway. She crouched, waiting for prey, sniffing the air until the perfumed scent of a luckless coed caught her attention. The beast that was Sadie spied the girl and then paralleled her as she walked towards the dorm, backpack slung over one shoulder. A deep growl came from within Sadie’s ravenous belly as she tensed for the kill, measuring the distance with furious precision.

Sadie leapt at her.

“Oh!” The coed let out a surprised scream as Sadie attacked, dropping her backpack and falling back onto the grass.

“Arf, arf!” cried Sadie in full rage, “Arf, rarf! Arf!”

The coed put a hand to her heart. “Oh my God! You scared me you little beast! No why did you have to go and do that?” she said, picking up her books and stuffing them one by one back into her pack. Sadie stepped closer, her bushy tail sticking straight out behind her, teeth still bared.

“Arf, rarf-arf!”

The coed smiled. “Oh come on now, sweetie! I’m not going to hurt you! See?” She stuck out a hand.

Sadie contemplated the offering, took a step closer and sniffed, then began licking the girl’s hand. “That’s better!” said the coed. “My goodness, what kind of dog are you? Are you a sheltie?” She reached out and picked Sadie up in the air to get a better look. “Why you’ve got no collar! I think I might just have to keep you!”

The coed threw Sadie, the were-sheltie, over her shoulder and picked up her backpack with her free hand, walking the last few steps home to her dorm room. She unlocked her door, switched on a light, and looked at her adoring new friend.

“Let’s see if we can find you something to eat, huh?” Sadie licked her face vigorously, tail wagging as the coed kicked the door shut behind her.

The Nightwalk had begun.

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My Amazon Author Page Is Up

http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B009IRJXKO

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Back to VOID SHIP

A snippet from my as-yet-unsold-but-still-on-submission novel:

Without another word she slammed the skiff controls to port and flung the vessel forward at full speed.

Right towards the Void.

“Are you insane?” yelled Renwick.

“Perhaps, but I’m betting they aren’t,” she replied. “Pirates want to stay alive, Renwick. If they think we’re crazy enough to fly ourselves into the Void, they won’t follow.”

“Makera, no one survives the Void. Nothing that goes in ever comes out,” he said sternly. She smiled casually at him, completely unafraid.

“Perhaps we’ll be the first, then."

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SPEEDWING on Fictionwise

One week you're No. 11, hanging in there, then your No. 13, then... #222.

Grr...

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SPEEDWING At No. 13 on Fictionwise SF Bestsellers

She's hanging in there!

http://www.fictionwise.com/ebooks/ScienceFictionEbooks.htm

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The Script Has Been Rewritten (Personal)

I attended the 2012 Fall Conscious Life Expo in LA recently with my brother, Mike, and during a panel on 2012 Prophecy that he was on I was reminded of some interesting experiences from my past.

One of the panelists (not Mike) was describing an "End Times" style scenario he thought would occur, complete with Planet X being revealed, a solar flare "Kill Shot", etc., and I was reminded of many of the so-called Biblical End Times Prophecies I was indoctrinated with early in my spiritual walk.

In 1981 I read a book by Hal Lindsey, noted Christian author of "The Late Great Planet Earth", called "The 1980's: Countdown to Armageddon". It scared the Hell out of me. Literally. At the end of the book I got down on my knees and prayed to became a born-again Christian. I spent the next few years worrying that we were in the midst of the Biblical "Tribulation", the seven year period in which the world would tear itself apart, ending in the Battle of Armageddon on the plains of Megiddo. And there were plenty of warning signs that the world was beginning the process of self-destruction; Ronald Reagan was shot; Pope John Paul II was shot by a Turkish Muslim would-be assassin; Anwar Sadat was assassinated by his own guards; the US sent troops into Lebanon; the British fought the Falkland Islands war. Even the rock band U2, picking up on the vibe of the time, put out an album called simply "WAR". By 1984, that Orwellian year, I felt we were on the verge of something catastrophic.

But it didn't happen. Then we all felt Armageddon was a certainty to happen by 1987. In 1987 we were sure it would be 1992, when the European Union would introduce a unified currency, the Euro, and reunify the Holy Roman Empire under the rule of the antichrist. But then the Euro got delayed and delayed some more, until 1999. We fought the First Gulf War and Armageddon didn't come. The Y2K event came and went with nary a blip. In 2001, we had 9-11, and that was certainly a sign, wasn't it? President Bush even used that Christian bogey word, "tribulation", during his address before a joint session of Congress after the attack, warning us of a "long, twilight struggle" against the dark forces of terror. That sent off a buzz in Christian prophecy circles. But then 7 years passed, and then 4 more, and we are still here; no tribulation, no rapture, no Battle of Armageddon. It's 2012 folks, and life goes on.

So what happened to my Armageddon scenario? Where is our apocalypse? The Rapture? Our world torn apart?

I think the answer is simple; the apocalypse script has been rewritten.

The Powers That Be, whoever they are, had a vested interest in what Richard Hoagland calls "fear porn", using these types of scenarios and religious dogma to make the people of our world act out of fear. Fear is what they want. A frightened people can be convinced of almost anything, made to do things they would never otherwise do, give up rights they would never otherwise compromise.

So the PTB had us going there, didn't they? Things ran according to their script for a long time. We bought into the fear, into just the scenario they wanted us to believe. And now we stand on the verge of the 2012 Mayan "apocalypse", and there are still people selling us fear porn.

I call bullshit.

Somewhere along the line people of good faith and good intent, Lightworkers if you will, made their intentions known to the Universe. They looked up in prayer, meditated on light, spoke ancient words of healing, and the Universe listened. Armageddon will not happen. We have revised the script.

Oh, the PTB or the Dark Illuminati or whoever they are, let's just call them Legion, are still trying to feed you nightmare scenarios; Israel going to war with Iran over nuclear weapons, a pending economic collapse, those could all still happen.

But I see a different outcome. I see a people who have already exercised their spiritual power to take control of their own destinies, to write a different chapter in the book, a new chapter, one without a dark ending. In fact, there are many more chapters to be written, because we have chosen to write them. We may be small in number, but we are not small in power.

As Mike says in The Choice, we choose our own future. 2012 is about choosing our own path. As we watch the influence of the PTB wane, with it goes the fear. The script has been rewritten. We write the ending now.

So go out and write the script to your own life, and help others do the same. Nobody controls your destiny, nobody controls your outcome or your life. Ask the Universe to guide you, and it will. 2012 is about change. Our change, not theirs.

Choose wisely.

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SPEEDWING Still No. 11 in SF/F on Fictionwise

http://www.fictionwise.com/ebooks/ScienceFictionEbooks.htm

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