Jason R. Peters

I have enjoyed the responses to my announcement of completing FRAGILE GODS. Thank you all. As ever, your encouragement and support means the world to me.

I mentioned a couple of other projects as candidates for my next undertaking, and the support for ACCELERATING THE PROGRESS OF MANKIND BY USING YOUR TURN SIGNAL has been overwhelming. I’m very excited about this project myself, and your votes have only fueled the fire.

So with all the vigor of a rabid squirrel, I will now tackle the task of reforming the world in ways that will improve life for everyone. This project is proof that I won’t merely be content to be published; no, my ambition is such that I must change the world. (If changing the world comes with a paycheck, so much the better.)

It is refreshing to write nonfiction. It feels somehow cleaner. Don’t get me wrong; I think of myself as a storyteller. But nonfiction, particularly motivational nonfiction, is like telling you a story that might become true, just for the telling of it.

Personally, I can’t think of anything more exciting.

Jason's Career, Nonfiction, Writing

It is my distinct pleasure to announce that I have FINISHED Fragile Gods, my first completed fantasy novel (first draft only).

Though I missed my original deadline (Christmas of 2009), I did meet my revised deadline, which was June 1^st, 2010.

Are you going to try to publish it?

I’m going to send queries and samples see if I get any bites.

It would be naive to assume it will automatically be published, or even represented.

Even award-winning books selling over 400,000 copies will be rejected when the author’s name is unrecognized.

And 99% of the recent success stories I’ve heard for newly published authors involve stalking agents or editors at conventions in order to buy them lunch…not impressing them with an anonymous manuscript. 

So you’re done with this book?

Not even close. There’s a lot more polish required before I’ll be satisfied.

Are you going to take us all out for lunch when you’re rich and famous?

 Sure. But less than 1% of novelists EVER turn a profit. It took me 1 year to write FRAGILE GODS, so if I sold it for a $15,000 advance, BEFORE TAXES, that’s a pretty crummy yearly salary, even assuming I could do it annually. The gulf between “finished book” and “rich & famous” is wider than the Gulf of Mexico. But I’ll make you a deal…even if I sell one book, I’ll take you out for lunch.

Do you want me to read it?

I want everyone to read it who is willing. But I prefer that: 

1. You regularly read fantasy/scifi, or at least popular fiction of some kind
2. You fully intend on actually reading it (within a week or so), not setting the printout on a shelf somewhere
   1. That may sound harsh, but I’m completely un-offended by NOT offering to read. People are busy, and I guarantee you that *I* have no desire to read the work of amateur writers. Why should you? But it does get my hopes up of getting feedback and criticism when someone offers to read, and you have to understand that for me, this is a major project and one of my deliverables is obtaining tangible feedback from my alpha readers.

So what’s your next project?

I am considering going one of three directions.

1. Get more practice writing short stories
2. Write a science fiction novel called Music of the Spheres, which so far is about a soldier who was ordered to kill a baby after a space battle, and has refused the order and is now on the run from his commanders
3. Write my non-fiction book: Accelerate the Progress of Mankind (by using your turn-signal), which is all about boosting world efficiency by making tiny common sense decisions, such as using your turn-signal, or deciding what to order BEFORE you get to the front of the line, or using both doorways of a double-door.

Fantasy, Fragile Gods, Jason's Career, Milestones, Writing

One thing a writer needs to learn is how to write concise but interest promotional materials for his/her works. It’s tough; how do you condense 50,000, or worse, 300,00 words of epic story into a one-page summary that is at all satisfying? Almost any work of fiction is going to be better than it sounds.

Yet this is a must-learn skill for developing writers. In one sense, you’re a salesman pitching a product to agents and editors. If you can’t motivate them to sample your product, you won’t get far.

Here’s my draft for FRAGILE GODS. Feedback welcome.

When protectors become killers…

For thousands of years, elemental titans known as the Drim have guarded and served the Dolmec people. Now, for the first time in history, they have turned violent, and not even the priests who follow them understand why.

The unexamined life is not worth living.

Damek is annoyed when his older brother, Azai, advises him to abandon a quiet scholarly life for the chance to help Azai to stop a war. Though Damek does not share his brother’s ambition and arrogance, he realizes his existence has become tepid and stale. But when Azai instead incites lifelong pacifists to take up arms, Damek is forced to question his brother’s motives.

The penalty for success…

The proud general Shoji has won every battle he’s ever faced, and is determined to spend what’s left of his life quietly with his family. But the Emperor-god he serves has other plans.

At every turn, the lives of mortals are driven by the deities they love or fear. But what happens when the gods themselves fail?

Jason's Career, Submissions, Writing

It’s a writer’s job to know a little bit about everything, and to thoroughly research anything he doesn’t know. ASK JASON ANYTHING is your opportunity to challenge Jason with a question of any kind, whether it’s scientific or religious, financial or social, political, historical. It can be something you already know, or something you’re genuinely curious to learn. You can ask trivia or knowledge or advice, and every Thursday, Jason will do his best to answer. (Read more atwww.jasonrpeters.com.)

For the first time in any number of weeks, I don’t have any questions in the queue for “Ask Jason Anything.” So I just want to take a brief opportunity this week to…

1. Thank everyone for the interest and support this column has received so far
2. Thank my submitters for offering tough, challenging questions
3. Advertise that I once again have an open floor for new questions

If there’s something you want to know, or you want to challenge my ability to research and respond intelligently to your area of expertise, now is the time — bring it on!

Ask Jason Anything, Columns, Jason's Work

It’s a writer’s job to know a little bit about everything, and to thoroughly research anything he doesn’t know. ASK JASON ANYTHING is your opportunity to challenge Jason with a question of any kind, whether it’s scientific or religious, financial or social, political, historical. It can be something you already know, or something you’re genuinely curious to learn. You can ask trivia or knowledge or advice, and every Thursday, Jason will do his best to answer. (Read more atwww.jasonrpeters.com.)

TODAY’S QUESTION:

If a close friend or relative is greatly suffering, should you permit him or her to give up and die?

You’ve heard this circumstance. There’s an incurable disease. Or perhaps the cure is worse than the disease, like years of chemotherapy (particularly when it hasn’t worked). The afflicted has made his peace with god, with family, and with himself. And he insists its time to let go.

But you have this “respect for life”. You can’t sanction this person’s casting off into eternal goodnight. Or perhaps you believe that suicides go directly to hell. Or you’ll just miss the person too damn much. Whatever the case, you can’t let go.

Should you? Read more…

Ask Jason Anything, Columns, Jason's Work

Each Saturday, Jason spotlights one person, product, service, or work of art he finds particularly amazing; the kinds of things that make you wonder, “Why doesn’t everyone have this?” (Read more atwww. jasonrpeters.com.)

Today’s spotlight falls on one of my favorite songs of all time; it was featured at my wedding, and is guaranteed to force my wife and I to dance in whatever confined space is available to us at the moment; most recently, the front seats of our sedan.

More amazingly, I can’t honestly say that I’ve ever met anyone who doesn’t like “You Can Call Me Al” by Paul Simon.

The song proves Simon’s pure artistry just in the layering of the opening lines:

The brass hook leaping forward promptly at 0:00 prepares you for music that moves. The bass line introduced at ~0:03 immediately delivers on that promise, quickly followed with snazzy percussion. Each layer is catchy on its own; together they synergize deliciously. Read more…

Columns, Jason's Work, Saturday Spotlight

It’s a writer’s job to know a little bit about everything, and to thoroughly research anything he doesn’t know. ASK JASON ANYTHING is your opportunity to challenge Jason with a question of any kind, whether it’s scientific or religious, financial or social, political, historical. It can be something you already know, or something you’re genuinely curious to learn. You can ask trivia or knowledge or advice, and every Thursday, Jason will do his best to answer. (Read more at www.jasonrpeters.com.)

TODAY’S QUESTION:

My relative wants to be a writer, and she keeps giving me her work to read. It’s AWFUL. What should I do?

It’s never easy to criticize someone you like. Or at least, someone whose feelings you don’t want to hurt, whether you like them or not. Family connections are the most intricate, but even an acquaintance can trap you with those dreaded five words:

Tell me what you think.

This can become the cerebral version of “Does this make me look fat?”

For the individual who is both kind and honest, there is, unfortunately, no right answer.

But there are a few charitable approaches that tap-dance with the “wrong” answer:

You suck. Read more…

Ask Jason Anything, Columns, Jason's Work

FRAGILE GODS part II is now complete in rough draft form, and I am now going to work on the final section of the novel.

Part II will be available to my alpha readers after a cursory attempt to polish some of the rougher sections.

Some statistics and information so far:

The books three parts have finally been named as follows:

FRAGILE GODS now numbers 190 double-spaced pages at 30,509 words. It is divided into three parts and a total of 27 scenes:

PART I: Rumors of Death (12 scenes)
PART II: Salvation and Glory (15 scenes)
PART III: These Fragile Gods (TBD)

This is extremely short for modern (or traditional) fantasy, but I am aiming for a fast read rather than epic sweeping plots that require a whole trilogy or more to resolve. I’m bucking the trends of huge swathes of description and a cast of characters so large you need an index.

Only time will tell if this effort is worthwhile.

Fantasy, Fragile Gods, Jason's Career, Milestones, Writing

I have reached the 60% mark of FRAGILE GODS, and am currently writing what is intended to be the final scene of Part 2 (out of 3), “Salvation and Glory”.

Fragile Gods, Jason's Career, Milestones, Writing

Each Saturday, Jason spotlights one product or service or work of art he finds particularly amazing; the kinds of things that make you wonder, “Why doesn’t everyone have this?” (Read more atwww. jasonrpeters.com.)

I’ve been an avid player of hundreds of games, most of them carrying some strategic element: Dungeons and Dragons, Risk, Settlers of Catan, Monopoly. Tac Air. Chinese Checkers. In the digital world, I began with Warcraft 2, Starcraft, and Warcraft 3, expanded to Age of Empires, Empire Earth, Company of Heroes, Star Wars: Empire at War, Rome: Total War, The Battle for Middle Earth2, Black & White 2.

In spite of a plethora of variations on a theme, one game strategy game stands above them all (and I would wager it always will), simultaneously full of beautiful complexity and elegant simplicity:

Chess. Read more…

Columns, Jason's Work, Saturday Spotlight