I’ve just finished revising Book-3 of my BLENDING TIME trilogy (working title: THE REBELS OF NEW SUN). One of the things I noticed (besides typos) was that it is so easy to write too much, that is, to hit the reader over the head with a point. Here’s one example of before and after revision:

Draft: [Segela speaking} "I can tell you the information you need, or give you the map I sketched this morning."

[D'Shay] “I’ll take the map. I know it’s a risk to get caught with a map of G-T facilities, but I’m not great with spoken directions.”

WEAK! D’Shay is telling us stuff that is unnecessary and messy. In my revision I have D’Shay reply to Segela:

“The map will be great.” 

There’s no need to add the stuff about the danger to himself and the greater mission.. By the time the reader gets this far, it is obvious there is danger, and saying he’s not great with spoken directions doesn’t add a thing. Neither does the fact that she sketched it this morning.

Bottom line: Remember the reader has a brain. Let him/her use it!

In a recent dystopia discussion on Twitter, people brought up the love triangle in The Hunger Games involving Katniss and her two guys. Some liked the triangle concept, others, um, not so much.

In my own dystopias (THE BLENDING TIME; THE FIRES OF NEW SUN; and the forthcoming THE REBELS OF NEW SUN) I prefer the star-crossed lovers approach. The “stars” are not aligned in my heroes’ favors. They must struggle to overcome differences in race, cultures, and values. To me overcoming those elements is a far more interesting subtext than which-boy-finally-gets-the-girl. In the  Hunger Games trilogy, that triangle never really seemed resolved– maybe the author wanted the reader to decide who Katniss would choose.

Any thoughts, dear readers?

I’m going through a “revised” draft of the third book in the trilogy. This one will be out at the end of 2012, but I need to have the final manuscript tidy and to the publisher by May. In the meantime they are working on a cover, title, and publicity. An editor and proofreader will have the task of finding those nasty typos and misspellings. Unlike FIRES OF NEW SUN (book-2), this one will take place in a city setting in war-torn Africa. Jaym, Reya, and D’Shay will join the New SUN underground in the city to free its people from the grip of its GlobeTran masters. Lots of intrigue, danger, and heroism.,

Fires of New SUN by Michael Kinch

I got my first review of THE FIRES OF NEW SUN (Book 2 in the BLENDING TIME trilogy by Flux Books).

“For great action, this can’t be beat.” — KIRKUS REVIEWS

The Kindle version comes out Jan. 1; the paperback comes out on Jan. 8.

And I just finished the manuscript of Book-3. Whew!

Happy Holidays, everyone!

(and force all your teen friends to buy a copy of Fires!)

Chartres Cathedral stained glass

I have a love-hate relationship with Fantasy. I loved the world of fantasy as a child. Dragons, witches, ghosts, werewolves, things that go bump in the night. But I also got kicked in the teeth when I discovered the world of fantasy and magic lay beyond my flesh-and-blood life. When I discovered Santa was not real, the rest came tumbling down: the Easter Bunny; birthday wishes; unanswered prayers; no fairies under toadstools, etc.

Fantasy author, George R.R. Martin, tries to make a strong case for fantasy vs. reality when he says, “Fantasy is silver and scarlet, indigo and azure, obsidian veined with gold and lapis lazuli. Reality is plywood and plastic, done up in mud brown and olive drab. Fantasy tastes of habaneros and honey, cinnamon and cloves, rare red meat and wines as sweet as summer. Reality is beans and tofu, and ashes at the end. Reality is the strip malls of Burbank, the smokestacks of Cleveland, a parking garage in Newark. Fantasy is the towers of Minas Tirith, the ancient stones of Gormenghast, the halls of Camelot. Fantasy flies on the wings of Icarus, reality on Southwest Airlines. Why do our dreams become so much smaller when they finally come true?”

Lovely thought, but I just can’t buy it. He portrays this real world as mundane and humdrum. But OMG, there are things to see and experience in our brief lives that are so awesome. Try camping in the mountains away from city lights and be awestruck by a Milky Way so bright it throws your shadow. Or look at the miracle of a tiny tree frog huddled in your palm. How about the Grand Canyon at sunrise. Or music that shakes your soul. A smile cast your direction that triples your heart rate. A stained-glass cathedral window with colors more brilliant than Aladdin’s treasures.

What I’m trying to say is that some authors have the ability to pull you into the glory of our world of reality with their words. Their real-world fiction can be as beautiful, magical, and sometimes terrible, as any book of fantasy.

When I wrote the first book in my Blending Time trilogy, the agent liked it because the dystopian genre was wide open. Little did I know that The Hunger Games would open a Pandora’s box of dystopian of dystopain novels. At the time my agent said he was getting to many queries about vampire and zombie books. The vampire books have kinda morphed into sexy vamps, and sex and erotica is becoming more mainstream in YA books. Why not! Teens are full of hormones. When I was a teen it was “dirty” to read stuffy like that. I can’t picture sexy zombies, but who knows.

So what will the next genre topic that lights up the eyes of YA readers? I have no idea, but it will be fun to watch the trend.

I’ve heard writers say that the easiest parts of their books are the beginnings and endings. They know where they want to start, and they can see a clear ending. The middle, for many, is the hard part. It’s not too hard to create a dynamite beginning and ending (drama, flash, romance, mayhem, whatever) but to carry that energy through the MIDDLE of the book (200-300 pages) can be a greater challenge for many authors.

For me the ENDING is the hard part. I’m not a great outliner with a file of cards detailing scenes from page 1 to the end. For me the beginning is easy and fun. I like to start in the middle of the action and go forward, sprinkling enough information along the way for the reader to be filled in on the novel’s world. The MIDDLE for me is fun and organic. I work up character histories (family, hopes, dreams, flaws, strengths) so the characters seem to take on their own lives as I write. I know roughly where I want the book to go, but the interaction of strong, well thought out characters do the ‘heavy lifting’ for me.

What is hardest for me is the ENDING. I don’t want a sappy or a predictable ending, so (like many film makers) I try multiple endings. Right now I’m trying not only to end a third novel, but it is the last in the 3-book BLENDING TIME series. So that is kind of a double whammy–the end of a book plus the end of a series. It has to be just right (at least for me).

More than once I’ve come to the end someone’s trilogy only to toss the book across the room because the author chose to use a predictable or cliched ending which killed the integrity of good writing. I think the reader deserves a memorable, unpredictable ending for any novel.

So, onward and upward to the ending (which is keeping me awake nights, but which will somehow come together). I hope, I hope, I …

“I really didn’t realize the librarians were, you know, such a dangerous group. … You think they’re just sitting at the desk, all quiet and everything. They’re like plotting the revolution, man. I wouldn’t mess with them.” –Michael Moore

The Blending Time by Michael Kinch

It seems a couple of high schools have chosen “The Blending Time” as a discussion book for their students. I didn’t expect that to happen, but am pleased because I think the book (and the rest of the trilogy) has a lot of social issues that teens should be concerned with and discuss. The book is a near-future dystopia in which a lot of things might indeed happen. Global climate change; famines and the subsequent battles for resources are already happening in parts of Africa. The next 50 years could see chaos or not–depending on the actions we take locally and globally.

Questions teachers might want to have their students discuss:

• How might climate change effect them in 10-20 years?
• Would climate change and scarce resources cause a breakdown of technology?
• Can you think of a ‘magic bullet’ that might ‘fix’ such a dysfunctional world?
• Could a world government (Like the Global Alliance) be effective… sort of a ‘super’ United Nations with teeth? What pitfalls might such a global government have?
• How can we avoid such a future as portrayed in “The Blending Time?”
• Any thoughts on the racial issues raised in the book? Will we become or or less racial and class tolerant in the future?

Just got back from a camping and ranch vacation in Wyoming and had a blast. Did a ranch photoshoot and had to get up at 5:00 each morning to catch the sunrise on pounding herds of horses and wranglers–cowboys and cowgirls. Dramatic stuff. Did the same a sunset to catch that ‘golden light.’ In the towns we met old cowboys that looked like they just stepped out of True Grit. Handlebar mustaches, battered cowboy hats, and well worn shit-kickers.

Alone the way I was fascinated by the names of towns, canyons, cafes. Examples: Dirty Annie’s; Crazy Woman Canyon; Dead Man Creek; etc. I jot these kind of things down, as well as descriptions of the characters we meet, to use as fodder for writing. I could never make up some of these names or characters. People watching in a local cafe and drinking the local (strong!) coffee and chatting with the waitress is great material for dialogue and character description.