Netherworld

I am currently reading Netherworld by Michelle Lang. Its the latest in the Shomi line that released Twist. I love the fact that Shomi features stories that don't have a niche in the mass market world.

Netherworld talks about living a simulated life. People are actually able to experience life as an Avatar in a computer game. They "feel" everything that happens to their Avatars, even down to sexual satisfaction. But by humans spending so much time inside the sims the AI is able to learn more about the human psyche until it becomes more powerful and demands that all humans become part of the machine. Which brings into question, what happens to the human soul once the humans reduce down into the machine? I'm not quite done with it yet but it brings up some interesting prospects. Plus its a great read.

It also kind of goes along with Margaret's post. How much human simulation is enough? At what point will robots become more like human or animal clones that are imprinted with the images of pets or even people that we've lost. As technology becomes more advanced it will be something that our conscious and our governments will need to decide. I guess it all will come down to the value of the human soul.

I have to admit that it would be nice to have a replica of my cocker spaniel around. But would I see the essence of what was Dauber when I looked into a replicant's eyes and would it feel the same. I'm not sure these are questions that apply to my generation but I am fairly certain they are not too far off in the future.

Back to the Future

I'm back. The past month has been hard. I've been out promoting my historical release, Rising Wind, trying to finish up Twist and spent a lot of time sitting in the hospital with my dad who got suddenly sick. He's fine now. But my time, so precious, suddenly got away from me.

Time is like money. You spend what you got. My former boss used to compare life to a ride. Everyday you get on the ride. Every day you pull a ticket out of your pocket. One day you reach in your pocket and there's no ticket. No more ride. You're out of time.

So I'm having all these time dilemnas while writing Twist,a time travel story. Yep, ran out of time. My deadline is today and I still have another 10,000 words or so to write. Luckily my editor gave me a bit more time to finish it. Time which is cutting into my next deadline.

I often wish I could stop time when I'm writing. Just long enough for me to get the book done so I could do some other things. Like unpack all the boxes piled up in my office from the move last summer. To finish all my crafty projects like quilting and scrapbooking. To go on trips.

If only I had more time...

Twist

Here's the cover to my alien vampire book. Which is really a time travel. It's for a new line by Dorchester Publishing called Shomi and with more of an urban fantasy edge. Thing Underworld, Blade Runner, along that line. All the covers are Manga inspired.

My book will be released in Feb 08. But the first in the line, Wired by Liz Maverick will be out in July, followed by Marianne Mancusi's Moongazer

We're real excited about the line so if you see Wired on the shevles be sure to give it a try. Liz writes awesome action and is an award winning author with her Crimson City series. Moongazer, which I've read, features an alternate universe and you never know which one is real until the very end.

I'm off for a week of writing and relaxation at the beach!

Monkey Wrenches and stuff like that

My current wip is an unban fantasy called Twist that I'm writing for Dorchester's new Shomi line. The covers are really cool, Manga style and its our hope that we'll pick up a bunch of new readers with the concept.

So yes there were guidelines for this line. And apparentlly when I pitched it to the aquiring editor he got so excited about my concept that he forgot one part of the guidelines.

No vampires.

So I'm halfway through the book which is due Sept one and scheduled to be released Feb 08 and I get a really sweet and apologetic email from my editor.

"uh, Colby, I forgot...we're not using vampires or werewolves in this line."

"uh, (insert editors name here). Did you forget that the vampires are my badguys?"

"Nope. But still, we got to do something. Make them nonvampire vampires or something like that." (thats a generalization of what he said.)

So after I had a morning meltdown we put our heads together. And what did we come up with?

Aliens. Aliens who are the reason there is a vampire legend. Actually it was pretty cool to come up with a new concept on an old tale. Plus we made up lots of slang and my heroine only lost a few of her really snarky lines.

So I lost the past two weeks to rewriting my nonvampires into existence. And I"m pretty excited about Twist. In spite of the monkey wrench.