The Worker Prince Synopsis

When I was a teenager, I dreamed of telling stories and one of the stories I came up with was a Star Wars-type space opera with elements of the Moses story mixed with action and intrigue. Somewhere along the way I lost my notes, but three things stayed with me, the name Xalivar, the name Sol, and the opening lines of the novel.

Twenty-five years or so later, in August of 2009, I sat down to write the novel. It was my second attempt at  a novel, my first in science fiction. Sixteen months later, I am preparing to sign a publishing contract for that novel and have two sequels I need to write. I’ve gotten a lot of good reader response to this, and I’ve taken numerous drafts to hone and refine it. People frequently tell me I captured the feel of “Star Wars” very well. That’s exciting, because it means I accomplished exactly what I set out to do.

Now, I’d like to share the synopsis with you.

THE WORKER PRINCE

For as long as Davi Rhii can remember, the Boralians and Vertullians have been enemies. After years of fighting, they left Earth to colonize the stars. Who knew they’d wind up neighbors again. Now the Boralians have held the Vertullians as slaves for years, and Davi Rhii uncovers a secret. Although raised as a Prince, he was born a slave.

As he sets out to discover who he is, he comes into conflict with his family and friends. Then a tragedy occurs and he finds himself on the run. Aligning himself with an underground slave movement, soon he’s training slaves to pilot fighters as they prepare to launch a war for freedom.
In the midst of the revolution, he meets Tela, a beautiful pilot. Judging him as the typical cocky fighter jock, and an enemy to boot, she wants nothing to do with him. But Davi sets out to win her over, and they wind up falling in love.

While Davi learns more about the Vertullians’ culture and begins to think of himself as a slave, he struggles to win the acceptance of slaves who question his loyalty as well as the family and friends he left behind on Legallis.

The High Lord Councillor of the Borali Empire, Xalivar is used to people obeying his every word. Then his nephew, Davi, fresh out of the military academy, begins rebelling. He shows sympathy for the ancient enemy Vertullians, and worse, he starts spending more and more time with them.

Xalivar overhears his sister, Miri, confessing that she adopted Davi secretly. He was born a worker. Stung by the betrayal, Xalivar is torn between his love for the boy he raised as an heir and his hatred for the slaves. 
When Davi finds himself hunted, Xalivar sends him away to cover it up. Davi returns and begins helping the slaves, and Xalivar sends Davi’s old Academy rival to hunt him down.

As the Boralian Council and people begin to question the treatment of the workers, Xalivar prepares an army to take them down. When the slaves attack two starbases and escape with fighters, the war begins. Xalivar’s family honor and way of life are at stake, and he’s determined to win at all costs.

When even his sister begins to scheme against him, Xalivar does whatever it takes to bring the situation back under his control. Finally, the Council overrules him and forces a Peace Conference. But Xalivar initiates a secret plan to conquer the slaves and capture their leadership, including Davi, at the same time.

Xalivar mistakenly lets word slip out of his plan while taunting Miri and finds himself confronted from both sides–by both the Council and the slaves. He’s losing the battle and now he’s the one fighting to survive. 


(FYI, in the novel, the slaves are called “workers”, hence the title. But for ease of understanding I just refer to them as slaves here.)

Links Of The Week, Vol. 2, Issue 3

http://shunn.livejournal.com/524615.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm;_medium=twitter — A great example from Bill Shunn of the “entitlement gone wrong” mentality plaguing our society. This kind of crap goes on all the time and it always ticks me off.

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/01/13/pope-benedict-reconciles-science-religion/?test=faces – Pope Benedict reconciles God and the Big Bang.  Interesting.

http://emunderwood.com/2011/01/15/2011-publishers-round-table/ — Discussion on the future of publishing with Del Rey Spectra, Fantasy & Science Fiction Magazine, and Small Beer Press.

http://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2011/01/you-can-have-my-double-space-when-you-pry-it-from-my-cold-dead-hands/69592/ — funny diatribe re: double spacing after sentences and learning to type on a typewriter

http://gizmodo.com/5736217/scientist-discovers-time-teleportation — Is Time Travel possible?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17jymDn0W6U&feature;=player_embedded — The Universe as we know it in a stunning video

http://www.classicshorts.com/index.shtml — source of classic short stories online to read for enjoyment or learning

http://bit.ly/dYtkdS — a funny cartoon courtesy of my friend Rajan Khanna.

 http://yfrog.com/gy6jzmj  a funny indictment of the political process.  

 http://bit.ly/gdE9lz — TOR.com examines religious science fiction

Review: The Black God’s War by Moses Siregar III

Two sons, one an embarrassment, the other prophesied to rule the world. Two armies, facing each other for nine years of war. A tortured princess. A bodyguard torn between duty and love. Moses Siregar III’s “The Black God’s War” novella has all the right ingredients and his prose lives up to the challenge–an exciting new epic fantasy is soon to arrive.

It’s taken me far too long to read this tale, and I am reading an older draft, but I’m so glad I waited until I had the focus to properly appreciate it. It’s been a while since a novella so captured me that I read it almost straight through–70 pages in the first sitting. But Siregar’s novella, 15 chapters culled from 85 of his upcoming novel, just has that effect on you. His characters are as passionate as his descriptive prose. The pacing is perfect. There are a few spots where editing might tighten things up, but as I said, this is an older draft and I know he’s been polishing a lot since then.

“The Black God’s War” is the tale of two countries at war on a distant planet. The sons of their two leaders each take their role in battle. One, Caio, is the legendary Haissem, born to rule the world. The religious ceremony handing him his father’s power takes place and the army awaits his arrival and their imminent victory. The other, Rao, hardly knows his father and is mocked by his men. Meanwhile, Caio’s sister Lucia is leading the army as they await him. Each side calls on their gods and each expects to win.

The novella has elements of mythology reflective of Siregar’s years spent studying religions and philosophies. It has a Greek or Roman feel to it at times, yet it remains clearly in the epic fantasy mold, despite being set on a distant planet.

Siregar handles the battle scenes well, using dialogue richly to both build his characters and his world. And the novella introduces many of his major characters well, wetting the reader’s appetite and leaving him wanting more.

I’m anxious to know the rest of the story and you will be, too. This is a novella epic fantasy fans don’t want to miss. Avaialble as an ebook right now through Kindle and other sites. The novel should follow in Spring 2011. Siregar is an exciting new talent to look forward to.

For what it’s worth…

Links Of The Week, Vol. 2, Issue 2

http://io9.com/5714039/the-14-best-speculative-fiction-books-of-2010 – includes books reviewed here among others.

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/01/10/big-news-first-solid-exoplanet-found/?utm_source=feedburner&utm;_medium=feed&utm;_campaign=Feed:+BadAstronomyBlog+(Bad+Astronomy)&utm;_content=FaceBook — First solid exoplanet found.  Fascinating science.

http://theadventurouswriter.com/blogwriting/editing-and-proofreading-tips-%E2%80%93-5-ways-to-proofread-your-writing/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm;_medium=twitter — Editing  & Proofreading Tips to Improve Your Own Writing

http://m.smh.com.au/victoria/river-rescue-as-sex-toy-ditches-rider-20110117-19sra.html — one of the funnier news stories I’ve read in a long while.

http://beta.io9.com/#!5735083/10-flame+throwing-contraptions-thatll-keep-those-dang-kids-off-your-lawn – Another great laugh from I09: Flame Throwing Contraptions That’ll Keep Those Dang Kids Off Your Lawn

http://www.heroicfantasyquarterly.com/ — A newly discovered market and source of heroic fantasy stories: Heroic Fantasy Quarterly.  Some good reading here.

http://beta.io9.com/#!5733980/downbelow-station-heres-how-you-write-a-novel — From IO9, Here’s How You Write a Novel: Revising CJ Cherryh’s “Down Below Station”

Painting With Words: Imagery In Fiction

I don’t know how many of you have ever tried to learn a foreign language, but believe me, English is one of the harder languages to learn. As the husband of an immigrant, I can attest to my wife’s continuous learning curve with our crazy language.It’s been eye opening for me as a writer, someone who’s always had a gift with English words, to watch this process. And what I’ve discovered is that one of the biggest challenges in learning English are some of my greatest tools as a writer: figures of speech.

The tropes otherwise known as “figures of speech” are expressions not intended to be taken literally but instead used to symbolize related things in some way. The five most common figures of speech are:

Metonymy – one thing is represented by another thing associated with it. Ex: “all the crowns of Europe” wherein crowns refers rather to “kings”

Synecdoche – a part stands for the whole. Ex: “all hands on deck,” with hands standing for men.

Personification – in which human characteristics are bestowed on nonhuman things. Ex: “the gentle breeze” or “the calming storm

Metaphor – a comparison which assumes or states a comparison without acknowledging that it is a comparison. Ex: “the woman is a peach” or “the eye of a needle

Simile – a comparison between two things using “like” or “as.” Ex: “the woman is like a peach

Other common tropes are:

Hyperbole – extreme exaggeration. Ex: “when she smiles her cheeks fall off.”

Oxymoron – the linking of two contradictory words. Ex: “act naturally” or “random order
Pun – a play on words using either different senses of the same word or similar senses/sounds of different words. Ex: “when it rains, it pours

Imagine being a foreigner trying to sort all those out?
For fiction writers, the simile and the metaphor are our most vital tools for painting with words, i.e. creating imagery in our fiction. It’s the tension between the two compared items which holds the power of such statements to inspire pictures and images in our readers’ minds. How alike or different are they? Good metaphors and similes get readers’ brains working to imagine how the writer could come up with such a relationship. They are intriguing, inspiring, interesting, even surprising. They contain an abstraction or judgment but yet are brief, condensed. At their best, they make us look at things in a new way.
From childhood, we are taught to learn by comparison. By being told to “be careful” when we fall, we learn that “be careful” is a warning of impending harm, which we will then apply to other situations. Our past experience forms a basis by which we predict the future and soon we are using language so full of similes and metaphors that we don’t even realize we’re doing it.
A pitfall of this phenomenon is clichés. “Her heart broke as he said it” is so overused it fails to have impact any more. “Her heart shattered like glass with the impact of his remark” is different altogether. Most writers spend a lot of time developing the craft of using these kinds of comparisons. Often one has to focus intensely on these aspects of his or her fiction. I know it’s something I continue to wrestle with. But when successful, metaphors and similes form the core of rich prose. 
So next time you laugh at a foreigner struggling with English, think about your own efforts to learn craft. Maybe you’ll understand better where their struggle comes from. You might even empathize.
For what it’s worth…

Tomorrow I’ll share some exercises on how to build up your skills with imagery.

Guest Schedule: Science Fiction And Fantasy Writer’s Chat

SFFWRTCHT GUEST SCHEDULE:

12/1/10 – Sam Sykes
12/8/10 –
Mike Resnick (technical issues/postponed)
12/15/10 – Blake Charlton
12/22/10 – John Joseph Adams
12/29/10 – Functional Nerds: John Anealio/Patrick Hester
1/05/11 – Jaleta Clegg
1/12/11 – Marian Schembari – publicist/social media expert
1/19/11 – Mike Resnick (rescheduled from Dec.)

1/26/11 – Ray Gun Revival: Johne Cook, etc.
2/02/11 – Michael Ray, editor, RedstoneSF
2/09/11 – Jeremy C. Shipp
2/16/11 – Mary Robinette Kowal
2/23/11 – Jay Lake
3/02/11 – Kaolin Fire, editor, GUD
3/09/11 – Lou Anders, PYR
3/16/11 – Brenda Cooper
3/23/11 – Kristine Rusch Smith
3/30/11 – SF Signal
4/6/11 – John Klima, editor, Electricvelocipede
4/13/11 – Carrie Cuinn, Publisher, Dagan Books

Writer’s Tip: The Value of Receptivity

A section I read in Jeff Vandermeer’s wonderful “Booklife” last night reminded me of one of the most important lessons I’ve learned through a decade of international travel and cross-cultural work: be receptive to other world views. I cannot emphasize enough how valuable it is for characterization and description to see the world through someone else’s eyes in as unbiased a manner as possible.

From a particular character’s point of view, you might write: “the crisp leaves sparkled in the sun, its rays accentuating the luscious green of their color.”

But what if you went inside the head of someone else who saw the same scene through different eyes. “The leaves’ sheen reflected the sun in blinding ways of blue-tinged light.”

There are people out there who see things very differently than you. And the more you know about how those people see the world, the richer your writing can be.

I remember a conversation I had with a friend in Ghana once, a student of one of my workshops, who insisted that God loves white people more than black people. Hearing a black African state that just blew my mind.

“Why would you think that?”

“Because white people are more blessed.  Look at their countries — wealth, power, success. Everything we wish we had and don’t.”

Another student once asked me what it was like to walk on streets of gold in America. And he literally believed the streets were paved with gold.

I visited an African coastal town once and was mobbed by children wanting to touch my skin. They rarely saw white people, our guide explained, you are like a god to them. Hearing that made me mad. I never wanted anyone holding me to that standard especially when it diminished the esteem which they held for themselves.

In Mexico once, I went to play with a friend’s daughters.  I love kids and playing with them delights me. But in this case I quickly noticed how everyone in the house kept a very close eye on me, and the older daughter kept her distance, only smiling occasionally but rarely actively participating in our game. Later, I was told that in the culture men are not expected to be able to control their natural sexual instincts, so they cannot be trusted with girls. I was horrified. I am no molester. I wouldn’t dream of it. Was that what they thought of me?

I bring these examples up (and I have many more) not to argue the merits or truth of the reasoning but to point out how different their view of the world is than someone from my background and culture.

The world is filled with such peoples of different views and by meeting them, interacting with them, and getting a glimpse of the world through their eyes, my world is richer. It doesn’t matter if their view of the world shocked or offended me. It doesn’t matter if it made me sad or angry. These examples inspired all four in me. What matters is that before I couldn’t imagine viewing the world through such lenses but now I can and as a result, I can now better write characters who view the world through lenses far different from my own.

Many of us meet people every day who see the world differently than we do. Those encounters are opportunities to expand our arsenal by engaging them in dialogue and trying to learn who they are and how they see things.  You don’t have to argue with them or agree with them to do that. In fact, I would urge you to avoid either. You’ll get a more honest perspective if you do. But what you can do is discover, through the powers of observation all writers are urged to cultivate and must to succeed, new ways of thinking and looking at things which can use to enrich your writing and your characters.

That’s why I love foreign films and stories and novels. I’m a much deeper, more well rounded person because of such encounters. And the box in which I place my world has grown much larger many times over as well. Grow your box. Build your arsenal and write better stories. The world will thank you for it…on many levels.

For what it’s worth…

Links Of The Week, Vol. 2, Issue 1

http://eruditeogre.blogspot.com/2010/12/idea-train-and-alluring-countryside.html — thoughtful post on the internet as a distraction for writers.

http://bit.ly/eRAvt4 — writer Jason Sanford’s essay on how one famous writer’s tendency to accuse others of plaigarism has harmed his own legacy.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12093345 — scientists rethinking the theories of human ancestry

http://www.theonion.com/articles/robots-speak-out-against-asimovs-first-law-of-robo,4236/ – good laugh for Asimov and SF fans

http://www.locusmag.com/Perspectives/2011/01/cory-doctorow-net-neutrality-for-writers-its-all-about-the-leverage/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm;_medium=twitter — Thoughts on net neutrality & copyright from Cory Doctorow

http://blogs.hbr.org/samuel/2011/01/social-medai-in-2011-who-will.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm;_medium=feed&utm;_campaign=Feed%3A%20harvardbusiness%20%28HBR.org%29&utm;_content=Google%20Reader — Very important advice on thinking before you act when it comes to using Social Media and the Internet from Alexandra Samuel, Director of the Social and Interactive Media Center at Emily Carr University.

http://motherboard.tv/2011/1/4/nasa-picks-its-best-and-worst-science-fiction-movies–2 — NASA’s Best & Worst SF Movies.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/40943737#40943737 — Homeless man Ted Williams tells his story on TODAY.