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As you may, or may not know, I had a Kickstarter campaign to try and raise money to do a really nice professional cover, professional editing, and marketing for the fourth book in "The Casitian Universe Series." It failed, rather miserably.

I've had a love/hate relationship with book marketing ever since I started to think about bringing my novels into the world (well, honestly, it was 99% hate now that I really think about it.) I got swept up in this idea that I should spend effort and time with marketing to sell my books - something that doesn't at all come naturally to me. And, if I couldn't do it, I should hire someone else to do it (hence the need for the Kickstarter campaign, since I don't have that kind of spare cash laying about.) I read a ton of blogs and blog articles about 30 minute marketing, eBook marketing, 10 steps to a million copies, blah, blah, etc. etc. I hated to think about it, and I only managed to do a little.

In light of the failure of the Kickstarter project, I took a good hard look at the whole thing - my relationship to writing, marketing, getting my books read, etc. And in that look I realized that I'd been going about this the wrong way... for me. I was entering into a paradigm that wasn't the right paradigm that made any sense for me.

I've been a small business owner and/or an independent consultant for most of the last 14 years, and have always done only the barest of necessities around marketing myself (website, blog and business cards,) and I've done well enough. I've done well enough primarily because I spent a lot of time (and I still spend some time) paying it forward. I blogged about technology, giving folks comprehensive information and advice for free. I always gave away hours of consulting time, did free (or very low cost) websites, I always had really reasonable rates. I volunteered my time at conferences to give talks. I wrote articles for free. And it has been enough.

For some reason, I thought that it made sense for me to do something differently, more mainstream, with my books, but I know now that I was wrong about this. I knew enough about myself and my own philosophy about things to license all of my books with Creative Commons licenses, a form of paying it forward by allowing people to reuse and remix the work freely. But I didn't go far enough.

So, what's next, you might ask? Well, I have the answer, right here in this here blog entry.

First, I'm going to focus on my craft. I would like to work with an editor, primarily to make my craft better, and make it so that I can edit my work well in the future. I'm not exactly sure how that's going to happen, since editors cost money, but it is something I want to do. I will spend most of February and some of March editing my fourth novel, and publish it sometime afterward, with a very modest professional cover. I have two more complete novels that I will be editing and putting into production later in the spring and summer. I have a seventh novel that is currently in process that I hope to publish by the fall sometime.

Secondly, I have decided to give my books away. I'm changing the pricing for eBooks on Smashwords (which will propogate to other retailers) to free. On Amazon, I'm putting the first three books at $0.99 (can't make them free on Amazon) and I won't publish any more on Amazon directly. I'll be giving away all electronic formats on my website. For paperback, I'll be pricing them on Amazon at their minimum, and I also won't be publishing anymore on Amazon. In addition, if people want to request paper copies, I'll give those away as well. There will be a nice shiny donation button if people want to donate, but the books will always be free (and, of course, still licensed with a Creative Commons license.)

Thirdly, I'm going to blog about writing, science fiction, and book publishing in the 21st century. (But, you might say, you already blog about that stuff! Exactly.)

Fourth, I'm going to stop reading the marketing blogs, and focus on what I know I'm good at: writing, and paying it forward.

A lot of people ask me about the themes present in my writing. Of course there are themes relating to gender, race, and sexuality - I'm not sure it would be possible for me to write fiction without those themes.

But if I were to identify the core theme in my writing - the one theme that is consistent throughout the 6 novels I've finished, and just about every novel that I have planned (more than a few,) it would be the theme of what happens when people of sometimes subtly, and sometimes greatly different cultures (and I mean that in the broadest terms - cultures of human beings as well as cultures of aliens) are brought together by necessity.

Here are some examples:

In the first three books of The Casitian Universe series, the primary culture clash is between the Casitians - human beings gone from Earth for five thousand years, having evolved a completely different society, and Earth humans. But there are also other culture clashes - a big culture clash within humans on Earth, as well as cultures of the Galactic Community. These are big - involving many people, and public.

In the fourth novel of the series, the biggest culture clash is small and individual, and not at all public. It is between a Casitian and US society in the mid-19th century. There is, described in that novel, the big, public culture clash at the time - between southern slave society culture, and northern culture that abhored slavery.

In the novel I just finished, it's all very different, since none of the societies that I describe are familiar - but it is a clash between two cultures, both conservative and tradition-focused, but they manifest that in completely different ways.

I enjoy writing about this - it's a big question for me in life in general. How do we learn how to encounter other cultures in such a way as to be able to accept those cultures for what they are, and not in any way decrease the value of our own culture, or denigrate what others do. It's an interesting challenge, for sure.

I have just lauched my first Kickstarter Project. It is for support for the completion of the 4th novel in The Casitian Universe series. The premise of this fourth novel is:

"What if a Casitian man visited Earth in 1859, and stayed during some of the Civil War? What if he settled in Oregon, fell in love with an American widow, and traveled back with her and her children to the family home in Virginia that she had so desperately wanted to leave, and he posed as her slave during the trip? What if he met and helped a woman who was a slave along the way? What might that be like, and what might happen?"

I'm excited about this, and really hope that everyone who reads this can drop even $5 to help me hire folks to do a professional cover, some editing, and marketing. And you'll get some fun swag if you do!

I'll be posting excerpts from the novel here over the next week or so.

One of the things I like to do is interview my characters - especially those who aren't the protagonists - the ones who don't get much play. The novel I'm working on now, with a working title of "House Trageri", is new for me for a couple of reasons.

First, it is the only novel I've written from a single perspective. Everything else (5 novels now) I've written from multiple perspectives, so you get to be inside the head of several (or many) people. I chose to do this because I felt that this particular novel would benefit. I also did it somewhat as a challenge to myself - it makes developing other characters more difficult.

Second, although this novel is a science fiction novel (how it fits that is something you learn only quite slowly as you read it), it has a fantasy context (some may definitely liken it to Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover novels, although this is quite different.) I'm not a fantasy writer - but I like the fantasy context, and it's been fun to play in that particular kind of sandbox.

Anyway, here is the interview with one of the characters. His name is Master Garliri Serel. He is the teacher and protector of the protagonist. You can get a few hints about the book in reading his answers to the questions. :-)

Here's the interview:

What is your hair color? Eye color? Skin color?

I have dark hair, like most in Trageri. I have dark eyes, and my skin is a light brown - the color of coffee with a lot of cream.

What kind of distinguishing features do you have?

I am tall, broad shouldered, and muscular. I have a scar on my cheek that I got from the war 25 years ago - one of the only injuries I suffered during that war. I came out the better, however - the one who gave me this scar got my sword in his heart.

Who are your friends and family? Who do you surround herself with? Who are the people you are closest to? Who do you wish were closest to?

I am pledged to House Trageri - primarily to teach and protect Daneli, Eldest and Queen. I was raised in House Serel, and go home often, but I am closest to those in House Trageri. I have made some friends, but my work is paramount.

Where do you go when you are angry?

Outside. I take a ride into the fields. It clears my head. Sometimes, I’ll go into the gym and do a hard session of sword practice.

What is your biggest fear? Who have you told this to? Who would you never tell this to? Why?

My biggest fear is that somehow, I will fail House Trageri, and something bad will befall Daneli. I have told no one this fear - they would not understand. But it is a fear I live with each day.

Do you have a secret?

Perhaps that fear is my only secret. Otherwise, I am an open book.

What makes you laugh out loud?

Clowns. For some reason, clowns make me laugh - the way they act and what they do.

When have you been in love? Had a broken heart?

When I was 18, I feel deeply in love with a man from a low-status family in my clan. We had talked about finding a family we both could marry into, but then an Eldest from a high-status family in a different clan proposed to him. He chose that over an offer for us both from another family in clan Serel. I chose, then, to not join a House or family, even though I had several offers. I was too broken hearted to marry after that.

What is your idea of perfect happiness?

Riding my horse, traveling from one place to another. Protecting Daneli, serving House Trageri.

What is your current state of mind?

I am calm and collected.

What is your most treasured possession?

My sword. It was forged in Warani - Warani has the best swordsmiths. It has a hilt wrapped in the finest suede - comfortable grip, and an edge that will cut paper.

What is it that you most dislike?

Dishonesty and duplicity.

Which living person do you most despise?

King Gasri of Warani. Dishonest, duplicitous, and manipulative.

What is your greatest regret?

That I could not save Queen Raliro’s life - that I didn’t see the assassination attempt coming.

What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?

My fears, and the fact that I get seasick.

What do you most value in your friends?

Their honesty, their willingness to support me, and their senses of humor.

Which living person do you most admire? Why?

Master Wuron. He is strong, but sensitive. Willing to use force when necessary, but is always extremely careful, and considerate of all of the consequences of his actions.

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

That I could be braver.

How would you like to die?

I would like to die a quiet death at home, alone, knowing that I did my best, and knowing that there was someone to carry on after me.

I've been thinking a lot lately about where I fit into the Occupy movement - what kind of role I should play. Unlike some of my housemates, who have gotten arrested, and have been presences at Oscar Grant/Frank Ogawa Plaza, I've been pretty much on the sidelines. I helped start Occupy Technology (which is sort of moribund at the moment.) I've been to a few of the marches and actions, but otherwise not really involved.

For a long time now (since 2003) protest in its traditional form hasn't felt like the right thing for me, even though I had spent all of my adult life as an activist in a number of causes, including anti-nuclear, environmental, pro-choice, health issues, anti-death penalty, and others. In 2003, when the Iraq war started, I joined a group of folks who promised to fast for one day a week until the war ended. Of course even then, we didn't think the war would go on for 8 years! My personal fast ended late in 2004, when it seemed then that the war would go on for a very long time.

In general, I feel great resonance with the Occupy movement, particularly the strains of the movement (which are not especially mainstream, but they are definitely present and known) that talk about the need for the creation of a new society based on love, compassion, equality, and meaning. And getting from point A (where we are now) to point B (that new society) seems completely unrealistic, perhaps even impossible.

I was reminded in a conversation I had this afternoon with a friend (who I must give the credit for the title of this blog post) about the importance of what I'm calling now "holding the door open to hope." Many people would use different language for it. The basic idea is that although we can't necessarily see how to get from point A to point B, we need to remember that there is available to us a vast source of possibility - the possibility to live into the best of what it means to be human. Some people might language this vast source of possibility as God. Others might language it quite differently. But in the end, it's the same.

We can see evidence everywhere of how messed up things have gotten. And it is so easy to get weighted down by the despair and hopelessness of the world. I fall into that all the time (just ask my housemates.) We can see how many people are suffering, and how the planet is suffering, and how the systems in place are failing us at every turn. We can see how divided this country is, and the world is, and not see how it would ever be possible for it to be different.

But there is, along side it, evidence of how things could look, and be different. We miss these, because the media doesn't cover this, and for many of us, our brains are more wired to dwell on the negative than on the positive. People are already creating the alternatives, right now.

So maybe that's my role. Holding the door open to hope. Reminding myself (especially) and others, of Divine possibilities.

Oh, and food. I'll cook for the revolution. :-)

The whole thing started a very long time ago, when you realized that you were going to lose one of the most important assets you had in building this country so that you could benefit from it. It actually even started before then, when you ran out of indentured servants from England and Ireland, but luckily, the African slave trade came at just the right time.

But once you realized you were going to lose the slaves to that nefarious thing called freedom, you had a lot to accomplish. The guiding force, of course, has always been that someone else should do the work, and you would benefit. There were all sorts of hurdles to jump, of course. Unionization was one of the biggest hurdles. And you almost grabbed the gold ring in the 20s, but then you got a little too ebullient, and you caused the stock market crash. Then that radical Franklin Roosevelt came into power, and almost ruined it for you. It set you back years. The 60s and 70s with its civil rights, feminist and gay rights movements were tough to get through, for sure.

You had to do a lot of careful planning. The standard ways of keeping people in line, such as, well, letting them starve, or sending them to debtor's prison, weren't going to work in the post-Roosevelt era. So you had to came up with other ideas - among them pretending that people could actually get the things you had if they worked hard enough and played by the rules. Then there was the genius called marketing. Yes, it was genius. Use human psychology to steal people's self-respect, and sell it back to them for the price of a product that they don't need. And then, you came up with the brilliant plan to entertain people - getting people to spend half of the time they weren't working for you watching things that made them want to buy more stuff - a twofer! Another genius thing was insurance. Remind people of their fears - primarily their fear of death, and tell them that they need not be afraid if they buy this or that policy. And then, there was the home mortgage. You hit a home run with that one.

You also managed quite well to co-opt the movements of the 60s - that was well done! You managed to convince African Americans that they wanted the "American Dream" too, and women just wanted the right to work just as hard as men, and you convinced queer people if they just had the rights to the institutions of the US - marriage and the freedom to serve in the military, that would be enough.

While you were keeping most people busy working and commuting so that they could buy stuff they didn't need, insuring themselves against their fears, being held hostage to their shelter, and being "entertained" so they didn't notice, there were some people you couldn't control that way. People who, for one reason or another, started out already so far down, that none of those things worked. The only thing they wanted to do was find a way out of their pain. Then, the next genius. Provide them with the means to self-medicate, and then make it illegal. That way, you could just put them in jail, which you did by the millions, making quite the tidy profits off of it in the process.

You managed to even co-opt people's desire to help their fellow human beings. All you need do was spend a few crumbs of your profits and you'd have people literally eating out of your hand, and they would be happy to listen to what you told them to do.

And you used the fact that the radical changes brought on by Roosevelt made life in this country pretty good for a while, to attract a new group of people who would come here and be happily exploited by you for often lower than minimum wage, and would put up with horrible working conditions because they were afraid of being sent away.

Of course, you got too ebullient again, and started to take stupid risks with other people's money. You almost sent the whole thing crashing down. But people started to see cracks in the facade. People started to talk about "corporate greed" and "the 99%." People did things like march in the streets, and shut down ports. You are starting to get worried. So worried that you are beginning to bring that one tool to bear that you have been resisting because of its obvious nature: force.

But you are running out of time. Why? Two reasons. First, you've taken just about all you can take from the Earth. There's not a whole lot more to take, without the effects actually damaging your way of life. Second, you've taken about all you can take from people, too. Once people start really waking up to this whole scam, there isn't much you'll be able to do to stop them. Even force won't be enough. You can't close down the urban farms, or the cooperatives, or the community exchanges, or the myriad ways people are beginning to find to come together as communities to take care of each other and make sure that every person gets the full benefit of their own efforts.

A while ago now, I wrote about reimagining the "American Dream." I've been reading a fair amount about economics lately, and I've found two interesting threads.

The more dominant thread is the one you know well. The story of the 99%, whose earnings and wealth have stayed pretty much the same over the past 30 years, while the earnings and wealth of the top 1% have grown tremendously. The solution to this story seems simple. First, decrease earnings and wealth inequities by going back to the tax policies of the 50s, 60s and 70s, where those who were wealthy paid much more in taxes than they do today. Second, spur economic growth by investing in infrastructure and creating jobs.

Occupy has made this argument mainstream. Further, Occupy has put pressure on the government to better regulate corporations and banks. All good stuff, and I'm not at all against any of this, of course, and I think as a short-term way out of the worst of our current problems, it makes a boat load of sense.

But for the long term, this is not going to even begin to solve our problems. This set of arguments makes the assumption that we will continue along as a capitalist country - with better income distribution, and better corporate regulation. The problem is that capitalism is no longer a viable option, and I'll explain in detail why. (A note, there are other, spiritual reasons why capitalism shouldn't be allowed to continue, having to do with how we see people, and people's work and lives, but this post is meant to be based simply on science and economics.)

The simple truth is this: we have reached the carrying capacity of our planet, and further economic growth will not be possible.

I'm going to detail why this is true. Most of this comes from reading the book: The End of Growth, which I would recommend to everyone. He lays it out really clearly, and I'll do a quick recap.

He starts with the origin and present state of the "science" of economics, which he says is really moral philosophy, and not really a science. I have to agree with his assessment:

"The classical theorists gradually adopted the math and some of the terminology of science. Unfortunately, however, they were unable to incorporate into economics the basic self-correcting methodology that is science’s defining characteristic. Economic theory required no falsifi-able hypotheses and demanded no repeatable controlled experiments (these would in most instances have been hard to organize in any case). Economists began to think of themselves as scientists, while in fact their discipline remained a branch of moral philosophy — as it largely does to this day."

He then talks about the underlying assumptions of capitalism regarding infinite growth. He says:

"Which brings us to the global crisis that began in 2007–2008. By this time the two remaining mainstream economics camps — the Keynesians and the neoliberals — had come to assume that perpetual growth is the rational and achievable goal of national economies. The discussion was only about how to maintain it: through government intervention or a laissez-faire approach that assumes the Market always knows best."

He discusses much of the underlying problems of the economic crisis, and then talks about why it is that perpetual growth is not a rational or achievable goal, because we are running out of all sorts of resources - fossil fuels, metals, minerals, rare earth elements, etc., and we are not going to be able to innovate ourselves out of these limitations in resources.

We do need a new economy, and it can't be capitalism. It's really clear, and, I'm sure for many, that prospect is pretty scary - so scary that no one in the mainstream media (even lefties like my favorite Rachel Maddow) is really talking about the end of capitalism.

Some sites you might be interested in to learn more:

• The Oil Drum: a blog on Peak Oil I've been reading for years
• Post Growth Institute: "Creating global prosperity without economic growth"
• Econ4:"4 people 4 the planet 4 the future"
• E3 Network:Economics for Equity and the Environment

There are lots more - if you come across them, put them in comments.

This is a follow up to my previous post about Fantasy vs. Science Fiction. One of the cool things about Fantasy is the maps, and I have one for the new novel I'm starting. I thought it would be fun to share it. It's definitely a very early draft - there is a lot missing, and I know that there will be many changes in the final version. I created it using a great program from Pro Fantasy called Campaign Cartographer. As someone who is not much of an artist or designer, it makes it relatively easy for me to create maps that work for me. I've got a lot to learn about how to use this program better, but I really like it.

Anyway, here's the beginnings of map.

I've been reading both fantasy and science fiction for years. Many, many years. I love them both, although I do tend to read much more science fiction than fantasy. And I've always considered myself strictly a science fiction writer... until now.
I have a fantasy story that has been running around in my head for years, and my muse tells me it is time to start writing it down. As I've begun to outline it, and spin the plot out before beginning to write scenes, I'm struck by the differences and similarities in my process.
I am, and probably always will be, a hard sf writer (that is, when I write scifi.) I think it's that I've been a scientist, and I like to have my stories have scientific credibility. An upcoming novel I have in draft form, tentatively titled The Right Asteroid is very definitely a hard SF novel. You could argue that the Casitian series is soft, because of it's focus on social commentary, but I tried pretty hard to make the science mostly believable. So in the process of outlining a new novel, I spend a fair bit of time figuring out the science. How fast can ships go? Is the star I'd like to pick for the location of a planet truly a good candidate to have a habitable planet? What would living on Mars be like 100 years from now?
In starting to write this new fantasy (ish - I don't want to spoil it, but it does have science fiction elements) I'm starting with what the families look like, and what does royalty look like, and what faith do people adhere to, and what is the social structure like? I'm delving into landscape and weather, and level of technology (like, uh, swords and stuff.) I'm looking at what kinds of gifts people have, etc.
Some similar elements are things like language and names - I've spent time on that a lot in writing scifi as well.
It's fun. It's different, and I'm enjoying the different muscles I'm stretching. And I think it's going to be a fun story.

As you might have noticed, I haven't blogged much. Partially, it's because I've gotten out of the habit, and I'm going to work on changing that. Partially, though, it's because I have been trying to figure out what to say about Occupy. I've been only peripherally involved in OccupyOakland, and other Occupy efforts. I helped start OccupyTechnology, and I've been to OccupyOakland a couple of times.

I have been at times elated at what is happening all over the country (and world) with the Occupy movement. And, at times, I have been sorely dissapointed when people in the movement have done things that are violent or counter-productive, and when the discussion has gotten mired in what feels at somepoints to be arguments about non-violent tactics, who has claim to be most radical,  or speak most for "the people."

The Occupy movement has brought out the absolute best in all of us, and has also brought out the worst - and I'm not just talking about police brutality, but that is certainly a big piece of it. Eve Ensler reminds us that even in the midst of a movement like Occupy, women still get raped. And people still get shot.

Above all, I am very clear that we're not going to get where we need to go without some kind of spiritual transformation. A video I saw recently (a great one, worth watching), is called "The Revolution is Love" and there is a comment in it about how we don't just want to knock down the 1% and put a different 1% in it's place. It's about changing the whole paradigm.

The good thing is that the language about transformation is in the air in the Occupy movement. My housemate and friend Nichola Torbett's organization, Seminary of the Street, is deep in the Occupy trenches, talking a lot about spiritual transformation, particularly with Jesus as the model. 

And this spiritual transformation, from my perspective, isn't necessarily religious. It's not about religious conversion, or adoption of particular spiritual traditions or ideas. It is fully embracing our dependence on a healthy Mother Earth, the primacy of love and compassion, and realizing that each human being has great value, and that all of our lives can, and should have meaning beyond what money we can make, or what kind of house we can live in.

So as we Occupy cities and towns, abandoned buildings and vacant lots for the good of all, let's also Occupy Transformation.