Working on a New Book!!!

Although I won't start writing until the Fall, I've started researching and taking notes on a new science fiction novel. No draft title yet. The setting will be Earth, perhaps 100-125 years from now, although I may have scenes from Europa, a moon of Jupiter as well as our moon or Mars, which by that time may be be colonized, to some extent. The Earth will be in conflict for a number of reasons. There is an expedition to Europa for the purpose of determining how habitable this moon may be. Allegedly, there is water aplenty there.

The themes should include Transhumanism, loss of humanity, brain-computer interfacing, cognitive, bio and cyber enhancements, and artificial intelligence.

Try Another Painting vs Photo

OK, I admit, for this one below I took more artistic license. That is, more color saturation, intensity...or for that matter, more color at all. Also, I decided to use different shadows, angled differently. This is a scene at the golf club.

Compare the Photo to the Painting

Here are some more samples of my painting. Please keep in mind that the photo I use may be interpreted in an impressionistic way. That's what I've done. If the color, brightness, intensity doesn't exactly create the image I want, then zowee, I change it. That's artistic license at work.

Thoughts About Material for a New Book

I have been researching the future, say 100-150 years from now. Or at least what the so-called expert futurists are calling for (and many others). I will say it is an eye-opener and great fodder for a science fiction novel. A couple months ago I became fascinated by the term 'singularity'. That got me going, that is, looking into the increasing speed of technology change. That led me into nanotechnology, artificial intelligence, transhumanism, posthumanism, generational space ships, colonization, cognitive enhancement, and much more. So, that's where I'm headed for the next book...not all of the above, but certainly some.

Update on Apple iBook Reviews

Tonight there are six reviews by readers of 'Flatline Virus: When Zombies Evolved' on the Apple iBook app site. These six average 4 stars out of 5.

Barnes & Noble Reporting Sales of Flatline Virus!

My distributor is now showing the sales coming in from Barnes & Noble for Flatline Virus: When Zombies Evolved. The breakdown by sales channel thus far is this by percentage:

Amazon (KDP including US and UK) 50%
Barnes & Noble 32%
Apple iBooks 18%

Finally the Apple iStore Sales Start to Show Up!

Smashwords, my distributor, is now reporting some sales coming through from the Apple iStore (iBooks). They seem to be at a rate about 1/2 or maybe a little less than Amazon, at least now. I also noted today that Amazon is reporting that sales of ebooks are now exceeding those in print for the first time. Ebook sales have been more than hard cover books for a while.

4 Star Ratings on Apple iStore !

I just checked my iBooks mobile app for the Apple iStore where my book is sold. The reviews average 4 stars out of 5. Granted, the average is based on three reviews, but that's hopefully a better indication of reader satisfaction than one review on Amazon.

Paintings vs. Pictures

I usually paint from a photograph. I like to take some artistic license with colors, light, and so forth, but I believe you can see the resemblance between the paintings and the photos they are drawn from. Some artists can make their paintings very, very photorealistic. I wish I could. Maybe in a few years.

Another Sample from 'Flatline Virus'

To set up the scene...Steve and Ellen, on their way home from their zombie-ruined honeymoon, spot a school bus on the side of the highway which Ellen recognizes as one from the school where she is a teacher. Two zombies are attempting to get in...

From a kneeling position, Steve swung the tire iron around and struck the bus driver on the side of the skull, sending him awkwardly off balance. This allowed Steve to get up and face a zombie who finally saw a meal outside the bus instead of through glass. The bus driver lunged forward at Steve, trying to grab an arm. Steve swung the baseball bat down on both of the driver’s extended arms. Steve could hear them both break. There was no cry of pain from the Z, only another advance toward Steve. Steve jammed the barrel of the bat into the face of the bus driver, sending him three steps backwards. Not deterred, the bus driver advanced again, somewhat more cautiously, waiting for Steve to make a move. Whether it was his Border Patrol training, his humanness, his youthful quickness, or just a survival instinct, Steve used all of them in a blitz attack on the zombie bus driver. It was clearly startled, trying to move back and to the side. But Steve was just too quick. He took a swing at the Z’s lower legs, breaking one, as he got behind his opponent, taking another swing at his head, bringing him down to the ground. With three more roundhouse home run swings to the Z’s skull, he threw the bat to the side, and shoved the sharp end of the tire iron into the ear socket of the bus driver. The kids on the bus had their noses pressed up against the windows. They were very impressed with Steve’s superhero action and quite happy to get out of the bus. After they untied their scarves, belts, and ties (which they had used to secure the door, preventing the dead driver from getting in), a few sped into the bushes to relieve themselves.

A Scene from the Book - Saving Blankie and Emmie

This is a sample from the book. The scene is this. Steve Spalding went to pick up his two dogs from the neighbors, the Senecas, who had been caring for them while the Spaldings were on their honeymoon....

The Senecas loved dogs and Blankie and Emmie got along well with them. As Steve pulled out of his driveway, there were eyes looking at him through the boarded up windows of most of the houses on the street. He pulled the Jeep in the Senecas’ yard, stopped the car, opened his door, and walked to the door on the side of the house. He knocked on the door. Nothing. He rang the doorbell. Nothing, but he could hear the dogs barking, then squealing somewhere in the house. He called them, “Blankie,” along with, “Hey, Phil, Marj, you home?” Nothing, except the sound of dogs squealing like they were hurt. Then Steve heard Blankie growl like he had never heard him. Blankie was only about a year old and still growing, about 70 pounds, part Husky and part Great Pyrenees. They called him Blankie, partly because he was mostly white and partly because his intellectual capacity wasn’t anywhere near the doggie Mensa level. Emmie, mostly a sheepdog, had the brains and speed. Blankie was normally a pussycat and almost a nuisance because he wanted to be so close to your side. On rare occasions, he had flashbacks to his earlier life, before Ellen saw him at the animal shelter. They suspected he had been abused. He wasn’t really friendly with anyone he didn’t know. If they were wearing jeans and Blankie didn’t know them, Blankie was known to bite. He bit one of Ellen’s friends right on the butt, perhaps because of the jeans, perhaps because he just didn’t know the friend, or perhaps he was being territorial. At any rate, a rather vicious growl from Blankie was not usual. Steve ran around the back of the house where there was a bay window which gave the Senecas a great view down the hill over the sweeping plains to the mountain in the distance. What Steve then saw shocked him like nothing else in the last two weeks of coping with zombie attacks.

A Review to Ignore

If you've seen the Amazon listing, you will notice one review of 'Flatline Virus: When Zombies Evolved'. The reviewer clearly was expecting to read a book by William Gibson, the famous, best-selling, award-winning science fiction writer. What he read was my book. Sorry. Maybe he should have known. My middle initial is D. The famous Gibson doesn't use his. In fact, his name is usually larger than the title of his book. That's how famous he is. I don't have fault with the reviewer being disappointed that he didn't get to read a William (the famous one) Gibson book (maybe a clue was that it was selling for $2.99). Although I have received some personal, quite positive unwritten reviews regarding the book, it is my first and I'm not best-selling or famous or award-winning. I do, however, take umbrage with the 'flawed science' criticism. I spent many hours researching the science-related aspect of the book, e.g. viruses, pathogens in general, decomposition, vaccines, epidemics and the CDC. It's all well-documented in published articles, wikipedia and elsewhere.

The reviewer ('RB' for short) is a rather prolific reviewer, although I did notice his last three were 1 star out of 5. Kind of negative, like a lot of his. The image below is from his reviewer profile page (yes, really). I wouldn't show my face either. His very short reviews on many items, not just books (in fact, books seem to be in the vast minority), like the one on Flatline Virus, are not well defended, or defended at all. They're just a stick in the eye with little else. I hope you give the book a chance. By the sales figures, the one review didn''t seem to matter.

My Zombie Philosophy

If you're reading this, you must have at least a passing curiosity about zombies, or my book which is in the zombie genre. Generally, zombies are slow-moving, mindless dead people who feed on human flesh (some say brains). Zombies in the movies are pretty easy to avoid because they're so slow and stupid. The trouble is, they are relentless. They don't get tired. They don't stop to rest and more of their friends keep arriving at your doorstep. They just don't stop trying to eat you. Eventually, live humans are overcome by their sheer numbers. The appearance of zombies usually means there's some sort of apocalyptic event going on. Everyone is going to be a zombie or eaten by one (maybe in reverse order).

I've seem many zombie movies and read my share of zombie books. In most of these, there seems to be a disconnect between the science and the fiction. Zombies are dead people. Wouldn't they rot and decompose in a matter of days or weeks into a pool of oozing bones and bodily fluids? Wouldn't predatory animals have an interest in these mobile meat wagons? Well, if that's the case, why would humans have to worry about an apocalyptic event involving a virus that reanimates dead people, a la zombies? After a month, they'd all be a mass of rotting flesh with no risk to the living; I wanted a book that would, at the very least, try to address these problems for me. I didn't find one, so I wrote it myself.

I needed a reason to explain how the dead could reanimate. After some research, I chose a virus as the biological entity that could hijack the cells of the living and set the story in motion. I have accelerated the time frame as to how fast the process of natural selection (and Darwinian evolution) could work. In 'Flatline Virus', zombies evolve (or rather, the endogenous retrovirus behind the zombie disease) and become plotting, intelligent, dangerous and even communicative entities within the 23 day time frame of the story. Further, I endeavor to address some of the questions that might bother the typical science fiction reader, like 'how do zombies assimilate food for energy?' and 'why aren't they rotting sooner?' I use several scenes and some friendly links to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (the CDC) in order to talk about what the CDC is seeing with regard to the zombie epidemic.

So, my zombies evolve. Yes, they do so rather quickly, but that helps the story. Since a virus hijacks the dead body of its host, there is a solution to the pathogenic problem. I won't tell you what it is. That's for me to know and for you to, well, you know the rest.

NOW AVAILABLE ON ALL MAJOR EBOOK CHANNELS - "Flatline Virus: When Zombies Evolved"

Yey!!!  The book is now available on all the major ebook distribution channels, including Amazon, the Apple iStore and Barnes & Noble.  It is also available on Smashwords, a large retail ebook channel and my ebook distributor.  I have priced the book temporarily down to a ridiculously low discount level in order to get a larger number of readers.  They are showing up in the sales reports I receive.  At some point I will reset the price back to the original level.

Important Notice

There is a very famous, best-selling science fiction author by the name of William Gibson. I am not him. He's not even a relative of mine. I am William D. Gibson, the not so well-known, not so best-selling author who just published his first book, an ebook at that. For a paltry $2.99.

During the first week my book became listed on Amazon, the book and retail giant directed those of you curious to view my 'other books' to those written by the other William Gibson. Except they weren't mine. They were the other guy's. After all I haven't written any other books. I just have one. Confused? So were others. It's corrected now.