To all who entered the last Goodreads Giveaway contest, the one for Rohmer’s Garden, I thank you, sincerely. Even though I don’t say it often enough, I do appreciate anyone showing interest in the stories. And to those of you who won, I hope you enjoy the ride!
As I always like to say, It’s not about the author. The author is just the signpost, pointing the way to an entertaining escape. The story is what matters. If I, as author, can provide you with a good variety of stories, perhaps you’ll find one or two stories among the bunch that you enjoy. That is my hope. It would be unrealistic of me to think everyone will enjoy every story. It fascinates me to see or hear one person state that a particular story is really good, and then have another person think another story is better. Ideally, I would ask that those of you who leave reviews mention one or two stories that you like. What did you like about the story? Was it a character? A particular scene?
Oh, well . . . in any case, this isn’t a book club, so I can’t ask such things of you. I’m just happy if you find a couple stories that you like.
Of course, I’m hoping that one day a few of the reviews and ratings on Goodreads also migrate, or spill over to Amazon. The reviews are pretty sparse over there. And if you check out the reviews on Amazon for my book, Pirate Tales . . . Whew, are they bad!
Of course, the bad Pirate Tales reviews on there are my fault. I had screwed up a character’s name in the first story. I would have never caught it in a million years had it not been for the first reviewer. I appreciated him letting me know so I could fix it. I fixed the name in that story and even went to the story “Two Fishermen” and added a line or two to clarify that the one fisherman referring to his wife Margaret as Maggie, or “Maggs” was just him using nicknames. I don’t know if this is what the reviewer was talking about when he mentioned other places in the book with name issues, but that was all I could find. Guess it really would have thrown him if the character had used the name Peggy to refer to his wife, as that is also a nickname for Margaret (though I have no idea why). Anyway, the original reviewer still liked the stories, so that was good.
And I corrected the errors. Well, at least in the main copies of my book on Amazon. I just forgot to make the corrections in the files on the Pubby website, which was where those reviews were coming from. Oops! And so, I got more bad reviews. And the second reviewer really ripped me a new one. Though I believe this other review had more to do with a dispute I had with Pubby than anything—And trust me, I could write a whole post on Pubby and their practices, though I’ll save it for another day.
And so, that is what it is . . . and I apologize for going there.
But now, let me get back on track and tell you what stories I like in my book, Rohmer’s Garden.
But wait! Before I divulge which story is my ultimate favorite, let me start with the cover of the book and the title story.
I probably should have come up with a more appropriate cover, as I believe the cover I used might lead to some confusion. Looking at the cover might lead people to believe the stories are “Hard Sci-fi,” about space ships and realistic space travel (with hard science) to real planets, etc. These stories aren’t like that.
Having said this, however, the story “Rohmer’s Garden” does take place in space, and on a planet, and there is a space ship. But is it at all real? That is an open question. I debated on putting a line or two at the end of the story that simply had Rohmer floating aimlessly through space in his suit, running out of oxygen, all of the story being a fleeting hallucination as he passes into death. And that might very well be the case. I’m not sure how you, as reader, perceived the story. I cannot know your thoughts. To me it is just a fantasy story that I suppose I could have tied off neatly with the scenario I just described. Perhaps there would be a spaceship in the background, with someone peering out of a porthole and watching their friend and fellow astronaut floating off. Rohmer could have just gone out to fix something minor on the spaceship. Somehow, he became untethered (in more ways than one).
“Soul of a New Machine: The Spirit Catchers” is perhaps, at least in my opinion, the weakest story in the book. I don’t know, though. I might have to go back and read it again and think about it. Initially, I had written a shorter, 1000 word, scaled down version for submission to a contest or magazine. I might have sent it to Asimov’s magazine. In any case, I got the rejection in time to add the story to the book.
“Playroom 3.0” is a nod to Ray Bradbury’s story “The Veldt.” I feel as though I might have belabored the point, or divulged too much of the Bradbury story in describing the earlier versions of the playrooms.
In any event, I would encourage you to find and read the Bradbury story. It can be found in his collection, The Illustrated Man. I love the whole idea behind the string of stories in this Bradbury collection being linked by the shifting and changing tattoos on the man’s body. That was an ingenious idea.
I guess I loosely used the sketch of something similar with my Civil War collection of ghost stories. The first volume, Daguerreotype Dreams begins with the initial narrator relating a story that his grandmother told him of herself as a little girl spying a Union soldier beneath the icy surface of a river. This soldier spawned many of what I had planned to be Poe-like vignettes, or ghost stories. And, of course, the stories of my Civil War collections are linked in another way. Sprinkled throughout, are stories relating to the novel I had been working on. Anytime the characters Jem, or Stark, or Minnie, or Esther and Morris Garvin, among others, appear in a story, they are the link to the much broader (though yet unpublished) story. Though most of the stories are standalone (not actual scenes from the novel), with the exception of the first one, and perhaps one or two more that I don’t remember. “The Trap,” which is the first actual story of Daguerreotype Dreams is spread out in the novel, though told in the first person in the story and the third person in the novel.
And now that I’ve left you absolutely confused about things, regarding my Civil War story collection, I’ll continue with my discussion of the Rohmer’s Garden book.
“On the Cutting Edge,” is where I took the Edward Hopper painting Nighthawks off the beaten path and used it as part of a VR type game. I like it, even though I went to places I didn’t intend to go when I started the story. Of course, I almost never know where I’m going to end up when I start a story. I hope that is the same with you as reader. That’s what makes the stories fun, to me at least. If you want more information on this Edward Hopper slant, feel free to read my earlier post:
Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks, where paint and pen intersect. Hopper paintings as inspiration! This can be found under archived posts—January 2021.
And now for my favorite story of the Rohmer book. Drum roll, please . . .
“Incentive Corps.” I really like this story. I just had a good feeling writing it. There was, in case you don’t notice as you read the story—though I’m not sure how you would miss it, a sort of Blade Runner vibe. This is especially true when Murse is in the seedy side of town.
Though Ray Bradbury’s influence upon my writing is substantial, Philip K. Dick’s influence is truly profound. I absolutely love Dick’s short stories. Though Blade Runner was the movie version of Dick’s longer work, Do Android’s Dream of Electric Sheep; other movies, such as Minority Report, Paycheck, Total Recall (the second version being better than the first), Inception, The Adjustment Bureau, Live Die Repeat: The Edge of Tomorrow, etc. were all taken from his short stories. Often times, the movies are not at all like the stories, and might only use the hint of an idea from the story. But the movies are all good, at least to me. I just have to ignore the fact that the movies don’t always reflect back the story with any accuracy. With any other stories, or novels, this would bother me. For whatever reason, this doesn’t bother me with PKD’s works.
I just rewatched Blade Runner last night on Netflix. I really enjoyed it. I had seen the original movie at the theater when it came out, and perhaps watched it at least once again on dvd over the years. I had enjoyed it the first time, but later thought it to be sort of cheesy glitz and a little boring. Last night when I was watching it, I was impressed. Of course, this version was “The final cut,” a 2007 remastered version with scenes that had been left out of the original film. Overall, I guess it is the creative, futuristic vision that I am impressed with. The genetic dolls, however odd and quirky, and the dark mood of the scenes with the surreal music (the music from this newer version seemed updated and remastered for the better) were especially intriguing. Visually, this film went all out. It is especially important to remember that the digital technology of the time (1982-1983) was not as advanced as we know it today. I now see this movie, just since last night, as a definite classic. It is really too bad that PKD passed away just before the movie was released (if I am remembering correctly). And I’m sure he would be surprised at all of the movies made from his works since. Whether he would have appreciated the liberties taken with his stories, I have no idea. I actually know very little about the man. I do love the stories, however.
And now back to Rohmer’s Garden.
My second favorite story would be “It’s Something Like Russian Roulette.” I truly did enjoy writing this character driven story. And again, we have another VR type game. I thought the story was coming to an end in at least three different places, and I could have sort of force-ended the story at any one of these stopping points. Instead, for whatever reason (perhaps out of curiosity) I just kept going. And finally, even the end wasn’t really the end. I see a novella there, continuing on; but I had to stop the story where I did, as it was becoming far too long to be included in a book of short stories. So, Laura will probably be back to match wits with Jack in Victorian London sometime in the future. I think, maybe. Who knows? My question to you is this: Do you want her back? Are you interested in more?