Remembering 2012: An End to Conversation and the Rise of Personal Absolutism

As another year becomes memory, most of us look back and conduct personal assessments of what could have been.  I find myself looking forward with doubt and trepidation at 2013, in consideration of a greater pattern of social norms that seem to have taken hold of us this past year.  I believe that 2012 was the year when we stopped having as many conversations with each other, and started to withdraw to the safety of the perfection of our own ideas.  2012 saw many of us become absolutists.

The greatest problem we face as a species is a lack of care and understanding for the opinions of others: a mode of sociopathic self-interest that has presented itself in our entertainment, politics, interpersonal relations, and media.  Many of us seem to feel that we are further apart from the people that we disagree with than ever before.  We are addicted to critique without reason; we make judgements without facts.  It is as if everything has a bloody “Like” button and we shoot anything that we dislike with our unlicensed, verbal automatic weapons.

For those of us who have forgotten, friendly disagreement and negotiation of position used to be the way progress happened in previous centuries.  Even in politics, when an election was over there was a respect that came with a result that allowed for parties to compromise and agree upon imperfect solutions.  Perfection exists only in our minds, but too many of us fail to realise the difference between the real and the ideal.

People have become increasingly entrenched and polarised within indefensible positions of the personal and absolute perfection of their own ideas.  It is as if we receive programming to believe that there is only one outcome or possibility for any given scenario.  We don’t care to find out facts for ourselves, and often our supposedly perfect positions are not our own.  Why find out about the underlying factors behind someone else’s views when we can refer to a handy infographic or bar chart from an increasingly biased source?  We allow talking heads to do our thinking and speaking for us…

We now lose friends over our choice of political parties.  We now lose lovers over our taste in music and movies.  We now lose sleep over a multitude of simple choices that people used to recognise as trivial or unimportant.  Every nuanced difference between anything that can be compared becomes a cliff, impasse, divide, or gap.  Everything is presented as a zero-sum game where someone will lose, and losses will be unfathomably great and permanent.  Choose or lose!  Believe or leave!  Win or die!

Maybe we should all agree that it is time for all of us to stop losing, and to recoup the stupid losses that we gave up last year.  Not every division that we can perceive is provably grave, nor is every decision that we take going to result in the end of an age.  Let’s back down from the cliff, step away from the divide, and take the overpass across the impasse.

It would be nice to have a blog headline at the end of 2013 that read: “2013: A Year of Well-Reasoned Thought and Genuine Negotiation”.

I realise that it might be a bit unlikely.   I would be willing to negotiate my personal desires down to: “2013: A Year of Frank and Honest Conversation”.

My own apocalypse is finally here: the paperback edition of Primae Noctis

I am very excited to report that my paperbacks have finally arrived on the slow boat from the States, and wouldn't you know it, just in time for the unpocalypse!

Here are some fun, celebratory photos taken in Sydney's Royal Botanical Gardens:

I am very pleased with the typesetting and the quality of the finished product, and it makes the ordeal of getting it out there entirely worth it. 

The paperback of Primae Noctis is available HERE.

Now available everywhere!* The Primae Noctis distribution roundup.

After many weeks of hard work, my new sci-fi novel is finally available in all major, global channels of English-language eBook distribution, and hopefully, will soon begin to make its way into the hands of even more e-readers.  Currently, the novel is available via the following distribution points:

• Amazon / Kindle Store
• Apple iStore (via iTunes / iBooks apps)
• Sony eBookstore
• Barnes & Noble Online Store
• Kobo
• Diesel
• Page Foundry
• Smashwords

Having worked tirelessly to get the distribution channels right, I need to reinvigorate my effort and focus on getting reviews and  more people to read the novel. 

Of course, the print version of the novel is already available via Amazon / CreateSpace.

*(it seems like everywhere)

Effort, exhaustion, and expectations

So I’ve finally completed and released Primae Noctis and the long period of waiting begins.  Everyone I know who has ever penned a novel has tried to prepare me for this step, and I’m coming to terms with their sage advice every day.  They tell me to keep a cool head, and in the end, eventually your efforts will reach some point of public acknowledgement: for better or for worse.  

Criticism and reviews don’t frighten me.  It doesn’t bother me if people find things about it that they don’t like or if the novel simply does not appeal to them.  My greatest fear is that the book will remain undiscoverable in the constant and uninterrupted flows of media that makes its way to market.  

My greatest fear is that no one will ever know that the novel is out there.

Aside from sending scores of ‘Request for Review’ emails and regular postings on Twitter and Facebook about the novel, I feel as though there is little else I can do except wait and hope.  Primae Noctis is not a quick read, and I know that it could take more than a month for most people to get through the nearly 700 pages of dialogue and story.  Critical reviews and word-of-mouth are what I need more than anything else.  Not that a few more sales would hurt.

I hope that I have performed due diligence and done everything I could to ensure the quality of the finished eBook and paperback.  I hope that I have not been overly ambitious or hopeful in expecting adult readers to embrace a new, independent sci-fi author in a market that teems with the hormone-laden angst of Young Adult offerings.  At 40 years old, I hope I have not waited too long to try to launch a career as an author, and hope that my optimism is tempered enough to deal with potential rejection by the market.

Primae Noctis has been an all-encompassing dream that has taken every active, available measure of energy out of my life for the past two years.  It broke my bones, sucked the marrow dry, and discarded me with nary an afterthought.  I know that I need to keep strong and to persist in my efforts to market and spread the word about the novel, but strength is lacking and resolve has faded somewhat.  Not because I lack in hope, but because I am truly exhausted.

Of course the entire effort is equally exhausting for friends and family.  They have watched me go through the rollercoaster of upbeat and downswing throughout the entire process of writing.  Now that I’ve passed the finish line, many are wondering if I will stop running, or if the marathon that they’ve just witnessed is infinite.  They want to know if the race will ever end.  

I tell them “I don’t know”, and continue running.

So if you’re out there in cyberspace reading this weary blog, perhaps putting together your own novel or just having a look at what’s going on with one new author, I hope that you will choose to persist and to follow your own creative visions to their ultimate endpoints.  Exhaustion or not, I would still have produced Primae Noctis and spent my energies to get it to market, even if I had the option of revisiting the decisions along the way.  

It simply needed to happen, and it found a way into existence. 

Want to have a free preview of my novel Primae Noctis? 
Visit http://www.amazon.com/Primae-Noctis-Future-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B00A67A93A

and select "Look inside the Book".