9th Chapter draft #2 Completion percentage 100%

2^nd draft of Chapter 9 is finished and posted onto the interwebs  as proof of my crime against humanity.
The rewrite for Chapter 10 is pretty much done as well because I worked on both chapters simultaneously. So that should probably be up at the end of next week.

Chapters 11 and 12, however; will be posted as *Gasp* first drafts. Why? Because I completely scrapped what I wrote in December, did brand spanking new outlines for them, and will start on the “prose” after I post Chapter 10. This was decision I was hesitant to make, but it was necessary and I think I’ll still make my July 31, 2010 goal for a finished draft.

I haven’t even finished the 2^nd draft and I’m already planning how I’m going to approach the 3^rd draft. So, yeah, I’m pretty excited. Partly because I don’t really like this draft… Not that I think it’s horrible… let’s just say if it was a house it be a fixer-upper… This is a task that I have found I relish.

In other boring Steve blog news; I bought a netbook so that I can now look even more pretentious when I’m sitting at Panera drinking expensive coffee drinks that I don’t even really like (Panera has great great food, but their coffee is meh) and working on my novel that no one will ever read. Score!

Still, I won’t look as douchey as the guys with Macs working on their novels that no one will ever read… Those guys are dicks, and I guarantee their novels are about something stupid like lesbian cowboys who eat pudding, wear fanny packs, and talk about their feelings! OMG who would wanna read that crap anyway?

But seriously, the battery life on this netbook is amazing… Something like 11 hours of word processing! Bonus: I wrote this blog on my porch with my pooch at my feet and some mellow tunes serving as the backdrop to the drifting cloud of lightning bugs perforating the night.

                              I could sit here all night…

Alright, some sugary sweet YouTube goodness and I’m out…

Freedom (TM)

Freedom (TM) by Daniel Suarez

“Freedom is overrated.  You can be completely free and starving in an igloo in Antarctica.  Business is what makes people’s lives better, not democracy.  The world is filled with dysfunctional democracies, paralyzed by idiots with votes.”
Pg. 147

Freedom (TM) continues the epic story began in The Daemon.  The Daemon saw control of the world sliding out of the hands of big business and corrupt political powers, and into the control of Mathew Sobol’s artificial construct know as the Daemon. 

Freedom (TM) picks up where The Daemon left off, and gives the reader a more personal Main Street USA view of what the Daemon’s takeover means to regular folk.  With skyrocketing gasoline prices  and high unemployment dominating the planet those who choose to side with the Deamon find themselves part of a collective enacting real quantifiable social change.  These new Utopian communities find a balance between technological sophistication and practical sustainable living for the benefit of the community; not some highfalutin Wall Street dandy.
But all is not well.  In the wake of the collapsed financial system government backed currencies have become worthless.  


The Corporate, government, and military powers are kinda dicks about being cut out of the fiscal loop.  Queue the body count.

Just as in The Daemon there is all kinds of crazy high tech, ultra violent action in this book that would make Hideo Kojima say, “Damn, I should have thought of that.”  The violence is awesome, but it’s importance is underscored by the social and cultural message that is the book’s foundation.  Watch for some douchenozzle game company like EA or Ubisoft to pick up these books and ruin them in an interactive form by focusing solely on the hyper violence and next gen weaponry without giving the social commentary it’s due. 

In one of Louis L’Amour’s finest books The Walking Drum there is a quote, “... a book is less important for what it says than for what it makes you think.”  Suarez’s two novels will make you think.  As I read Freedom I couldn’t help but think that there is a better way.  True Democracy could work with the assistance of technology in world with an educated populace, and technological sophistication and material wealth do not have to come at the expense of our environment or our population.  Even a few quick reads on some websites show that technology and capitalism-lite (great taste and less filling) could actually benefit from self-sustainable micro-cultures (my term) if handled by forward thinking humans who weren’t driven by material wealth or hindered by the standards laid out by our ancestors.











This is the rare work of fiction that entertains, prophesies, and informs.  Get it in your hands ASAP.



“It is pretty amazing how the brain just kind of plays along.  We’re quite willing to delude ourselves.”
Pg. 197

“I curse your data....”
Pg. 204

“It’s not about how many people you can kill - it’s about who runs out of people first...”
Pg. 218

“I’ve been amused by the debate in America over whether torture is effective...
“Of course it’s effective...
“But not at producing information.  Torture isn’t about about extracting information...
“Torture is about control.  You let me torture a thousand people, and I can keep five million working obediently with their heads down.  The more innocent the victims, the better...”
Pg. 219

“Those plants have as much to do with agriculture as a weight lifter on steroids has to do with physical fitness...
“This is just a big green desert.”
“You think these other farmers will change?”
“They’ll have no choice... Industrial farming and the global supply chain gobble up fossil fuel...  Natural gas in the fertilizers, petroleum-based pesticides, fuel for the tractors, more fuel for transport to food processors, fuel to process the raw crops into food additives, then to manufacture them into products, and then to transport the products across the country...”
Pg. 242 – 243

“You hear how democracies are all over the place, but it isn’t really true.  They call it democracy.  They use the vocabulary, the props, but it’s theater...”
Pg. 264

“Our social psychologists told us the panic should make people eager for strong leadership.”
Pg. 377

Darklost

Darklost

Mick Farren

“Bury your money in the graveyard at midnight, and the curse will be lifted.”

Pg 140

Darklost is the second book in the Renquist Quartet, and it competently continues the bizarre – almost ridiculous – story of a modern day Nosferatu colony.   

The first book, Time of Feasting, was set in New York City, but at the conclusion of the book the colony was forced to flee in the face of an undead (zombie isn’t quite the appropriate term) army.  Darklost finds our lovable heroes in sunny L.A. where they adopt Brandon Wales (think Marlon Brando) as one of their own, fight crooked cops, and… something else…

Oh, that’s right.  They go head to head with the Apogee (think Scientology).  It turns out that when crazy people aren’t scaring black women on television they like to summon immortal harbingers of destruction.  Who Knew? 

Mr. Cruise out of the

closet long enough to 

scare a black woman

Apogee’s head dude, Marcus, is pretty not good at summoning cosmic entities into our universe.  I say “not good,” because he actually CAN summon non-corporeal beings… He just can’t control them once they get here.  And this time he’s hard at work bringing across the most powerful of uber-powerful squid-like beings: Rusty.

Rusty Rocks for Jesus

Ooops.  That’s not right.  It was Cthulhu.  I get the two confused sometimes.

"I can't do a thing with these face tentacles!"

In the end this novel taught me that scaring Oprah is way more fun than trying to summon Cthulhu, but not nearly as likely as you get you laid by Katie Holmes.  

Still, I highly recommend the series to fans of SF/Vampire mythologies.  The series so far has flirted with absurdity, but is so well-executed that it never feels cheesy or campy.

And now; More Rusty