The satisfaction of finishing a major project is always tempered with the knowledge that the job is never really done, just marked inactive until the need to revisit arises. I’m actually still in the last stage of putting up the single volume of The Cold Goodbye, but a 3rd and hopefully final edition of Book I, hereafter entitled Apophenia (it was always named that, but it was easier to refer to it as The Cold Goodbye–it’s a long and complicated history) and the 1st edition of Book II, entitled Caliph, have been posted on Lulu for sale.
Caliph begins immediately after the climactic (and frustratingly unresolved) ending of Apophenia, following the survivors of the disaster. The book takes a few dramatic turns, including a twist (though hopefully the clues I’ve left throughout the narrative will be sufficient enough to leave you surprised, but not cheated) that comes near the end. Overall, the books function together as what I hope will be a critique on our times. Science fiction, I’ve learned, mostly through writing this book, is almost always a critique on our non-science fiction existence. This is very much the case with The Cold Goodbye, which specifically comments on our push toward a technological existence whose logical end is the evolution of the species.
I think one of my failings as a writer, especially a science fiction writer, is the urge I feel to explain everything. Hence the long and rambling expository history of the city of Varosha in the first draft of Apophenia, or the discussion of the development of the ARC and the “biological computing revolution”. Many of the sins I committed in the first draft of the first book I was able to avoid in Caliph, and the writing is certainly more crisp, surehanded, and even. The plot actually doesn’t ramble as much. Some might even call it spare. I hope that’s to my advantage in the long run. I want to give people a good time, but I wanted to press an agenda too–there, I said it!
With that said, if you read Apophenia (formerly just titled The Cold Goodbye) and were itching to know what happens after the last frustrating page, you can click on the link to purchase Caliph for a mere $12.50 plus shipping. Or if you haven’t read Apophenia and can’t wait until the single volume version of both books comes out (next few days), you can buy it for $12. The books themselves are high quality printed works, 6.00″ x 9.00″, perfect binding, 60# cream interior paper, black and white interior ink , 100# exterior paper, full-color exterior ink. I can vouch for the superior quality of the product–you may not think much of the content inside, but the books themselves are engineered marvels.
The next day or two, depending on how well my brain works, will see the full volume edition of The Cold Goodbye, containing both Apophenia and Caliph. I’ve always intended the book to be one volume anyway, so separating them and selling them as distinct works is only slightly disingenuous. However, I do encourage you to check out the previews for each book, just to get a sense of the writing and maybe a little of the story.
This has been my plug. Now go forth and purchase liberally. Oh yeah, and have a nice weekend. I’ll see you Monday.
UPDATE: In case you were wondering, the 3rd edition of Apophenia is a significant text revision, including updated chapter headings, and not one, but two newly written sections! In addition, certain details left out originally were added so as to make Caliph accurate. If you’ve purchased an older version copy already, you can hold onto it and sell it on eBay later on when I’m rich and famous.