Post-partum Depression
No, I'm not talking about being depressed after a baby is born. I'm talking about the feeling I get whenever I finish a novel like The Milk Run. This even extends to when I finish a section of a book like Part 2 of Rome's Revolution. Shouldn't I be happy that I am done? Shouldn't I take a moment out to relax?
I can't. I just don't ever want the story to end. Here are some examples:
Rome's Revolution, Part 1 - Even though Rome and Rei solved the problem at hand, Star OMCOM stopped by to tell them that he had "accidentally" unleashed mutations of his VIRUS units into the world.
Rome's Revolution, Part 2 - Even though Rome and Rei had stopped a war, Sussen breaks loose and heads to Earth to warn the Onsiras that Ibbrassati were now free and had to be exterminated. Rome and Rei have to go after her.
Rome's Revolution, Part 3 - Even after Rome and Rei had defeated MASAL and the Onsiras and brokered a peace with the Stareaters, Captain Keller said "Tomorrow we start with the real work. The job we started a long time ago," which was a thinly veiled promise to start pursuing the Darwin Project's agenda.
The Ark Lords - right at the end, Rei told Rome not to worry about the one or two Darwin participants running loose on Deucado. Little did he know they were going to try and kill him in the next book. Here is that ironic exchange:
“I know you’ve removed all the weapons,” Rome said, “but do you think we have to worry about any of the remaining Darwin people that have evaded capture?”
“Naw,” Rei said dismissively. “Most of the ones we missed the first time turned themselves in voluntarily. There might be a couple of them wandering around. Not enough to do anything.”
“That’s a relief,” Rome said. “I would not want to live my life constantly worrying about them.”
“They’re done,” Rei said. “And they know it.”
Rome's Evolution - this is as close to the end of a story as I got. But I couldn't help myself and preview 17 years later when Lupe and Aason started off on their ill-fated journey.
The Milk Run - this story had a happy ending but the Epilogue tells you that more is coming.
See, I just can't help it. I never want the story to end. Life doesn't end so why should the future history of the 35th century?
Entry 3-199: July 13, 2015
Post-partum Elation
Yesterday, I told you that I get depressed whenever I finish a book because I don't want the story to ever end. But after I wrote that article, I realized I was also elated when I finished. I guess I am biploar.
I did a radio interview last year and the final question was, "Now that you've successfully slain the dragon, how will you celebrate?" In all fairness, I knew the question was coming as I listened to several of her prior interviews. My answer was, "There's no time to celebrate. You have to go on to the next dragon." But lack of celebration does not mean lack of joy.
The reason I am elated goes beyond the obvious. Sure, the book is done, it gets published, people read it and so on. But the hooks I showed you yesterday also point me to the next book.
Rome's Revolution appears to end happy however, I all but told you there was the Erklirte, the new Ark Lords that would have to be dealt with. At the end of Rome's Evolution, we find out that Rome is pregnant again, with Lupe, and that 17 years later, Lupe and Aason will be starting out on a grand adventure.
At the end of The Milk Run, we know there are aliens (like the K'val) to deal with. The (naively named) Galactic Union has begun and Rome and Rei have been given virtual immortality which will lead to further adventures.
Surely this is cause for hope. And lots of work ahead of me. I hope you are enjoying the series and know that there is more coming.
Tomorrow, I will attempt to explain the agony and ecstasy of The Milk Run, the audio book. There is so much more involved that I would have ever guessed. I will give you the low-down.
Entry 3-200: July 14, 2015
Audio Book update 1
A while back, I mentioned to you that I wanted to turn Rome's Revolution into an audio book. I figured the first thing I had to do was to find a studio. Luckily for me, there is the School of Rock right here in Cherry Hill so that’s where I went. I got a quote. They wanted $4,000 just to record the book because I was not only renting their studio, I had to employ a voice actor as well. Actually, that did not seem to be all that outrageous, based upon what I had read. But after the recording was finished, I would have to do some marketing and so forth. I figured I would need closer to $5,000 when it was all said and done. And that was just for my first book.
I tried to raise money for this project with Indiegogo. I set my goal as $5,000 but I didn’t quite make it. I only raised $700. However, this is a classic lemon/lemonade situation. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Instead of investing all that money in a single book, I took the considerably lower sum and built my own recording studio. All I had to do was finish my novel, The Milk Run, which I did in early 2015.
Now it was time to start recording. But I came to the realization that the 500+ pages of Rome's Revolution, although it was the first book, might be too ambitious for someone who had never done it before. So I decided, instead, to turn The Milk Run into an audio book first. If I failed, I failed but it was only 250+ pages so it would be a good trial run for the big boy. I made a "demo" recording, played it for my friends and family and sent in the demo to Audible.com for QA testing.
Other than having some suggestions regarding dynamic range, I got the thumbs up from Audible so now it was full speed ahead. But what did I get myself into? It was and continues to be way more work than I dreamed of.
The first thing I learned was that I cannot possibly record more than two chapters in one day. You would not believe how it strains the voice. I tried to record three chapters that first session and by the third chapter, I was choking and coughing and no amount of clearing the throat helped. The other thing I learned during that first session was that I cannot record at night. It is unbelievable but my voice sounds strained and weak. I would never have guessed but the microphone picks up every tired syllable ultra-clearly.
So I quickly learned that I have to record during the day. Which means I have to record on weekends because I have to work and earn money during the week. I also learned that my next door neighbor loves to mow his lawn on Sundays from 10:30 to 11:30AM. The sound of his mower in the background does not make for a professional sounding recording so I have do something else during that particular time slot. Like praying for rain.
What else did I learn and how is it coming out now? More tomorrow.
Entry 3-201: July 15, 2015
Audio book update 2
Yesterday, I revived the topic of turning Rome's Revolution into an audio book. But as soon as I started actually recording, I became overwhelmed with the feeling of "what did I get myself into?"
My original plan of putting the Blue Yeti microphone in a Styrofoam cooler turned out to be stupid. It didn't help with noise reduction and the quality of the sound was, well, like the microphone was in a closet.
So I liberated the microphone from the enclosure and found that all I had to do was let it start recording for a few seconds before speaking and then my wonderful audio recording and editing software, Audacity, could electronically "subtract out" the room noise. All I had to do was eliminate some of the more controllable sources.
When I am set to record, my routine is very simple. I pack my computer in sound-absorbing foam to minimize the sound of the computer’s fan. I am in the basement but I have to turn off our refrigerator upstairs at the breaker because you can hear the compressor through the microphone. After that is done, I run up to the top floor and turn off the air conditioning and then I do the same on the first floor. At this point, my noise floor is so low that Audacity can handle the rest.
As I mentioned yesterday, I can only record during the day because my voice is the strongest
and I can't record more than two chapters in one day because otherwise it strains my vocal cords. And let me tell you, cold beverages do not help. Only warm beverages. So Saturday morning, with nobody home and a cup of coffee by my side seems to work the best.
I wear headphones that plug into the microphone and I bring up the "script" on my iPad. I use the iPad because I can scroll to page after page and it makes no rustling noises.
I launch into the raw narration and if I mess up, I just say "no" then repeat the flubbed lines without stopping the recording. The intonation and sound levels work best that way. Sometimes I record a paragraph or two several times, trying for different inflections and postpone deciding which is the best "take" until later. I've stored up about 10 chapters of audio.
I record in stereo. I found it easiest to do "re-takes" and merge them but just before I save to MP3, I merge the stereo tracks down to mono as per Audible's suggestions.
Right now, I am in the process of editing all of those recordings into a useable form. But whoa!
More on that tomorrow.
Entry 3-202: July 16, 2015
Audio book update 3
Yesterday, I gave you a little insight into what it takes just to record a chapter. I find that it takes about 30 – 40 minutes of narration to boil down to about 15 minutes of usable audio. Audible.com is going to publish it and they have certain rules.
You need exactly one second of clean “head room” tone, i.e. silence, before beginning a chapter and three seconds at the end. After the first second, I announce the chapter number. Then I delay 1.25 seconds before launching into the story. I have determined that a “full stop” – the pause between sentences – should be about half a second. I am using a very light amount of special effects to distinguish the voices of the characters so when I change my voice but then as narrator say, “he said” or “the livetar said” – the delay needs to be about quarter of a second. If I need to pause mid-sentence, to take a breath, for example, it should last no more than a tenth of a second.
I also learned that breath sounds are OK for me as narrator but inappropriate for the computers and robots because they don’t breathe. Luckily, Audacity has this wonderful tool call Silence. You just highlight what you want to remove, click on Silence and it becomes noiseless.
This is what my Audacity screen looks like during recording:
You can click on the picture to see it full sized.
Anyway, after editing down the complete chapter, I then do a special effects pass to add in Junior’s voice and then a second pass to add in OMCOM’s voice. Pretty soon, I’ll be getting to Ay’den and I’ll have to add in the third and fourth pass for the K’val and for Molokai.
It takes me about 15 minutes to edit down to one minute of audio. So a full, 20 minute chapter, takes me about five hours to produce. I now realize that the studio would never put in the time that I do and I now know that I would never have been happy with the end result, no matter how hard they tried.
Hopefully, it’ll come out sounding crisp and professional and it’ll all be worth it. See what you think. Click here for a 5 minute sample.
Entry 3-203: July 17, 2015
Future normal
Does everything in the future have to be futuristic? Don't some things stand the test of time?
I'll give you an example. People need to sleep. It is more comfortable to sleep on a softer surface than the ground. So, after we get past the straw and skins & furs stage, wouldn't beds be recognizable now and well into the future? Egyptian beds are very recognizable as beds. Way in the future, even if beds give way to sleeping pods, we already have those in the capsule hotels in Japan:
So in the world of Rome's Revolution, I decided to give them some normalcy here and there. They'd eat at tables, sit on chairs, sleep on beds, use computers and so on. I even made Rome's birthing room as Earth normal as possible so we could relate to it. Rei could, too. Here is a brief description of Rome's room:
Within the Vuduri compound, Rome was resting with her newborn in her arms. The Vuduri had taken exquisite care in constructing a very comfortable room for her to recuperate. Only two days had passed since Aason’s birth yet the three Bieraks were already settling into a routine.
Rei was sitting in a chair just watching over the scene. Except for being early and, for a Vuduri baby, very large, the boy seemed healthy. He cried. He ate. He pooped. He did all the things you’d expect of a baby. That the baby could talk to his mother and father within his mind was still a wonder to Rei.
All of this was to lull you, the reader, into a false sense of comfort before the next crisis hit. And believe me, the crises upcoming are way more intense than the ones we left behind.
Entry 3-204: July 18, 2015
Fade to black
Previously, I had told you about Lawlidon. His name sounds like a Vuduri dinosaur but actually, he was a very large Bridadira which is Vuduri for protector. He was sent to Deucado to guard against the attack by the Cecetiras which were hunter-killers.
I set the whole thing up because I had Part 1 of Rome's Revolution end with OMCOM announcing the mutations which had no real purpose other than to sound ominous. By having some of them turn rogue and want to kill people, it gave me two huge adversaries ready to fight a battle in space.
I have told you before how much I love scenes where everything goes black. So the real reason I wrote them in was because I wanted this scene:
“Yes, what did he say?” asked Melloy.
Rei looked up at them and croaked, “He said that we should warn the Earth. He said the battle for the stars has begun.”
“What does that mean, battle for the stars?” asked Keller.
“Som, qua?” asked Trabunel.
Rei started to stand then suddenly grabbed his head. “Oooh! Noooooo,” he screamed and fell to his knees, his limbs twitching in pain.
Rome put her hand over her eyes. She was in agony as well. “Ni, ni, ni,” she cried out. It was all she could do to not drop the baby. She laid him on the bed then slumped over, seemingly unconscious. Fridone rushed to her side.
Baby Aason started wriggling all around and was crying, then wailing. At the same time, Captain Keller felt a dark ripple go through his mind. He couldn’t make any sense of it.
Rei fell over, onto the floor. He was holding his head, moaning loudly. Pegus kneeled down but his attention was drawn away. To the horror of the remaining conscious individuals, the sky darkened then went black.
Pretty cool, huh? Great cliffhanger? Originally, I thought so too, but over time, I realized the whole thing was dopey. While everything going black was a great way to end the next section of the novel, ultimately, it served no purpose. It was, to quote Rome, motion, not action. So, sadly, my fade to black had to fade to black.
Entry 3-205: July 19, 2015
Fat child
As every parent will tell you, all they want is for their children to grow up healthy and happy. Also, given a choice, they don't want them to grow up and be too fat or too thin. Well, my books are almost like my children as well. Actually, any artist will say their creations are like their children and not be ashamed to admit it.
Keeping this in mind, when I wrote Part 2 of Rome's Revolution, back when it was still the long form called VIRUS 5, I didn't want it to be too fat or too thin. So there were times when I added stuff to make sure that it had enough "meat".
But the reality was, the meat was actually fat and when I decided to boil down the three books into a single omnibus aka trilogy, I knew I had to trim the fat.
Yesterday, I presented one of the scenes that had to go. It was one of my classic "everything went black" scenes and while it was dramatic, in the end, it was just fat.
Over the next few days, I'll show you some other parts that got cut out including how the Stareater died and when OMCOM changed over to become Planet OMCOM. I'll also show you how the VIRUS mutations started. Final
ly, I'll give you the titanic space battle and the apparent death of MINIMCOM. I always knew he was going to be jet black and the excised scenes were my first attempt at this transformation. I found a much better way in the modern version.
Regardless, sit back and enjoy this next series even though it was just fat that got cut out. But they say it is fat that gives meat its flavor so maybe it had some value after all.
Entry 3-206: July 20, 2015
Death of a Stareater, Part 1
Yesterday, I told you there was a lot of fat in the middle novel of the VIRUS 5 series before it became the modern version of Rome's Revolution. One of the fillers was the death of the Stareater that was approaching Tabit, from the perspective of the Stareater itself. It's a little long so I broke it up into two parts. Here is part 1:
The Asdrale Cimatir named Balathunazar emerged into the gravitational well surrounding the small F6V star with plenty of room to spare. It checked its internal temporal charts and confirmed that this star would indeed go supernova in 1,840,000 years plus or minus a few. Following protocol, it called out to see if there were any sentient inhabitants occupying any of the worlds or space around the star. It awaited a response but to its knowledge, such calls had never been answered, at least not in this part of the galaxy. There was a faint tickle that was suspicious so it called out again, even louder, to rule out the possibility of harming any living intelligence. This time, there was absolutely no responses so it was able conclude that the tickle must have been some sort of temporal echo.
Tales of the Vuduri: Year Three Page 27