Tuesday, January 8, 2013

In Search of The Universal Truth Publishing's new website

Mike finally did it!  He revamped the old Universal Truth (what I call it for short) website and it looks great!  There web address is listed here and in the link section of this blog:



That being said, I've made the call to go with Universal Truth for the second Cruel New World book.  I'm in the process of re-writing a few parts of it now.  The second book is going to be a little more serious than the first and when I first wrote it, it had too much of a comic-book feel to it.  At first, I thought this was a good thing but later I saw that people took the first book a lot more seriously than I did when I first wrote it.  So now I'm taking out the parts where, for example, one guy takes out twenty entrenched men.  Instead it might play out like 8 guys take out 15 entrenched men, still walking a fine line between realism and entertainment.  And like it will be in future books, nobody is bulletproof.  That means that you'll never see a long series from me where you have a person in constant danger but they are always mint-condition before the start of the next book.  Life isn't like that and I've watched too many brave people burn out or burn down to effectively portray someone leading what amounts to a charmed life.  If I meet someone who has honestly lived a life like that, then maybe I would change my mind.  But for now, like all of us, eventually all my character's luck runs out.  When, where and how is the only question. 

I need to state too that I'm not changing my writing style or trying to.  I've written a lot of serious books in the past but I always figured they were either too radical for public consumption or they were just poorly done compared to my later stuff.  Cruel New World started out as a project called "Mitch After the Bomb" and was actually a little on the goofy side.  After someone said that this was the one I ought to publish, I hardened it up a little and gave it a more serious name.  Mike Kiser suggested that I make it a series so I re-wrote the final chapter to allow for such.  I also had written the book to entertain a buddy who was doing time but he kept telling me to hold off sending him parts of it since he was sure he was about to be released.  Anyhow, about two years later he did get released and I sent him a published copy.  We lost touch after that.  I feel like retelling that story every couple of years. 

One thing that has got me excited about publishing the second book was patching things up with Mike Kiser.  We went back and forth about the missing chapter in the first Cruel New World book.  Well, that is over with now and we've agreed to disagree or rather just drop it.  I placed that chapter about Minnie (who she was, where she came from, why she is the way she is etc) as the 0# flashback chapter before the first chapter in the second book.  I read over it and decided that finally, it had all worked out.  Minnie's origins needed to be retold for someone who was picking up their first Cruel New World book, since the second is half about her.  But unfortunately, you'll have to wait until the third book to find out how Minnie got her name.  So really, I'm almost glad things happened the way they did since it all came together to help the second book make more sense.  If you didn't read the chapter from the first book, you'd have no idea why Minnie has the problems that she has and why she is so cold to Tim, even though she doesn't really want to be.  A lot of the book focuses on Minnie being a broken person who is trying to fix herself before Tim leaves and moves on to someone more functional (which she is sure he'll do). 

There is a little more politics in the second Cruel New World book too.  I'm mulling over that now.  In some ways I wanted to keep politics out of the books, Marxist and Zionist included.  However, some of the people in the books have political leanings just like people do in real life.  I don't want to tone that down just to keep things objective.  Most of the political expression in the book has been laid out in a debate format.  I offer both sides of a lot of touchy debates but the left will naturally whine because I'm presenting an alternative perspective to their own.  Either way, it is going to be a fun time for everybody!

2 comments:

  1. Before you can do anything, Chris you must be honest with yourself and honest with Jesus. Get help for your meth addition. You are your wife as well need help. Go to treatment and ask Jesus to help you, Chris. It is the only way.

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  2. Do you know what Chris Drake looks like??

    ReplyDelete