Pearseus Year 18: The Schism by Nicholas C. Rossis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Having crashed landed on an unknown, but life supporting planet, the remaining crew and passengers set about rebuilding their lives. 18 years after the crash and one man's tyranny will provide to be the proverbial straw that breaks the camels back.

This is a novella in length at best and so there's precious few words spent on character development with the story really focussing on three people and a small number of supporting extras.

Where the story is let down is the extra terrestrial influence that plays such a big part of the story is never explained its just used as a plot device to propel the story along. However there appears to be two influencing forces at the outset but the good side is forgotten after the ship crashes.

It's a good read, well written and enjoyable but ultimately left me wanting greater explanations than were offered by the author.

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Let's be honest that's not strictly true is it.

Not only is age relevant to us as authors in regards to our characters and how old they are but the 'age' in which our novels are set is just as relevant to how they act and behave.

Of course I'm bound to reference George and the Dragon because it's the one work I have, so far, published.

In the novel George is 13.  However it's set at a time when there were barely televisions in homes and there's one only 1 television channel.  For entertainment they had radio, books or they could go and play with their friends.  There's a strong likely-hood that in another year George would be expected to work for a living and contribute to the household income.

Nicholas North on the other hand, who is the hero of my second novel to be released around November this year, is 11 but lives in an alternate reality modern England.   His life would be completely alien to that of George.  He'll have access to tablets, games consoles, computers, cable or satellite TV.  Playing outside, climbing trees, getting dirty etc will hardly flash up on Nicholas' radar he is just not that sort of kid.

Age and period, which is probably a better term for when a novel is set, is vitally important to us as authors. Especially when you start setting your book in historical times.

A child before the late 1950s/1960s even in teenage years was treated very differently to the way they are now or were during the rock and roll era.

The term teenager for example was coined in the 1950s.  I think of this era as being the Teenage revolution. It marks the point when, due to economic growth, teenagers were liberated;  they had their own music, fashion, hair-dos etc.

From here you have the vast diversity that makes up teenage life through the 70s,80s,80s and into the 21st Century and then on into the future.

It's interesting to note that Back to the Future heads to 21 October 2015.  So while this blog isn't about predicting the future I wonder if teenagers will be riding hover-boards, with shoes that are self adjusting and food cooked in Hydraters.  I suspect not but that's the difficulty with the future.  With history we don't have to predict it just make sure we are true to it the future on the other hand is a whole different ball game.

The other point of this post is slightly different.  I'm not an 11 year old,  I haven't been one for 31 years truth be told.  I don't have children in this age bracket either.  My eldest being only 6 years of age.

So I have the interesting conundrum of writing about an age bracket with whom I have only passing familiarity.  I suspect I'll be calling on the children of friends who are in that age bracket to double check I'm getting it right.

Lots going on this week and most of it exciting.

First of all watch this space on 1 June, especially if you haven't already bought George and the Dragon. I'm hoping a I'll be able to persuade you to do so.

As you may have noticed my second piece of published writing will soon be available.  I've discussed this before in this very blog;  it's a story about the harsh lives of wolves called The Last Pack.

The book is called Lupus Animus and should be available for purchase as an eBook and paperback soon.  All of the profits from the book are going to charity so it's a win win all round.  You get to read plenty of different writing including my own and give money to charity as well.

As I've stretched my wings from the realms of writing about dragons to writing about wolves I've joined a couple of wolf orientated communities on Google+ and started to swap images of wolves. Just like this one.



I'm still deliberating about the audio book version of George and the Dragon.  I've had two auditions but neither were quite right.  There's always a question of what if I don't find the right voice so I need to make a decision on that this week.

I have been writing more of Nicholas North this week and did a little more work on my guide to Twitter.  I've also started to jot down a few more notes with a view to my musketeer/steampunk style novel I have plans for.

That's about it from me this week.

I hope the words flow onto the page for you.

Phil

...Amazon that is.

You have to had it to them they've managed to go a step further and offer even greater integration with Twitter.

Anyone who still thinks you should tweet about your book is, lets be honest, fooling themselves.


This is how my tweets now look that include a link to Amazon.  Note that's not even a direct Amazon link it's a Georiot link that aims to match the person that clicks on the link with their correct Amazon website based on their geographical location.  Amazon.com for the US, Amazon.co.uk for the UK etc.

So not only do I get to link to the book, my book blurb gets partially tweetted, an image of the book and several more links to the book as well.

This truly is free integrated advertising for indie authors and you can't really afford not to use it.

I've now changed quite a few of my ghost tweets to include my Amazon Georiot link because it doesn't make sense not to; unless I am promoting the book on another retailers site like iTunes for example.

You may disagree with me. I'd love to here your thoughts either way.

Phil

So here it is in all it's glory the cover for Lupus Animus


Lupus Animus is a collection of short stories, all created around the theme of Wolves, and is being sold to raise money for the Artisan Rarebreads Charity.

Quite excited to read this myself when it finally comes out as I have not read any of the other stories contained within its covers.

You can find the book already listed on Goodreads here:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22351432-lupus-animus