Thanks to all who have said so many nice things about the fiction I posted here. It’s very gratifying to get appreciation for one’s children, you know.
Currently I am 80,000 words into “Babe in the Woods,” which looks likely to become my first completed novel since Messenger. I am very tempted to post it, a bit at a time, but really I should at least try to find a conventional publisher first.
“Babe in the Woods” is the story of my week at the Monroe Institute’s Gateway Voyage, 15 years ago this month. I tell people, that week in December, 1992, was the beginning of my life as a conscious being. Everything in my life changed after that, slowly or quickly, but thoroughly.
As I write it, I am repeatedly awe-struck, for I am not souping up the story but, if anything, toning it down. I wrote up one set of visions and reminded myself, “that really happened!” Indeed most of what I include in the novel really happened, and nothing in it is exaggerated for “woo-woo” effect. If anything, just the reverse.
The narrator is a large part of me, but not me. There is, after all, a difference between fiction and journalism! So, Angelo Chiari (George’s brother) is Italian, a reporter, middle-aged, discontented with his life, and afflicted with asthma. His experiences are roughly mine, though simplified in some directions. He meets a woman and finds that his inexplicable feelings for her are rooted in what are called past-life experiences. He leaves the program utterly (but still largely potentially) transformed. Et cetera.
The odd thing is, my experiences in real life were more complex, more far-reaching, than I can plausibly write in the novel, mostly because some of the side-trails would stretch it beyond manageable boundaries.
In any case I have been enjoying myself hugely, but it has taken its toll on the amount of blogging I have been doing!
I can hardly wait to read it. Rich told me about it before I left and it sounds like it will be even better than Messenger, if possible. Hurry 🙂
Hi Frank
I agree with what Linda says – I can’t wait to read it so PLEASE hurry! You know how much I enjoyed Muddy Tracks.
What about putting it in e-book form – much quicker for us who love reading what you write (i.e. instead of waiting for publishers etc.)
You’re reading my mind, Irene. I’ve been thinking about doing just that, not just for my fiction but — more impoortantly — for a series of small books based on the TGU material and other things. I could sell e-books for a very small amount and perhaps make enough money to live.
But I’d need to create a website and get someone to put it together for me. Although i was a programmer once (in another century as I often say) I have lost all patience with learning such things.
Frank
This is a loving community that you have around you. Now that you’ve put out the request that you “need to create a website and get someone to put it together” you will no doubt have offers coming in to help you. I sure hope so, cos the waiting to read the book/books through a publisher will take too loooooong.
Irene
Great to read that Frank.I admire your patience in writing fictionalised accounts.Two thousand words is my personal limit with fiction.I think Hay House Publishing would be itnerested in this.
Michael -from Bonnie Scotland
Frank,
Regarding a website, I would advise the simpliest one pager of your choise, lots of ISPs offer them. JUst fill in the templates with what they ask for. Add one link on that one-page-portal to take your readers to your published works at a publish-on-demand site like “Lulu.” Each “publish” site has its particular requirements, like Lulu requires the text fonts of your copy to be one of 6 fonts, eg. Arial,Courier,etc. The publish site gives lots of options for the reader to download your work. These options would cost you a fortune, or your sanity, to build into your one-page-portal. I speak as an expert of failed websites since 1995. You may see this principle (one-door-simplicity-portal;apartment-facility-complexity warehouse) applied at my present site at http://www.fivelements.net,where the reader has a link at the bottom of the portal to visit a warehouse of my photos hosted by phanfare.com at http://www.claymoldenhauerimage.phanfare.com.
This split between portal and warehouse has numerous advantages, one being the flexibility to hire and fire warehouses at will, and two being the ability to have multiple warehouses of differing contents.
clay
Frank,
Regarding a website, I would advise the simpliest one pager of your choise, lots of ISPs offer them. JUst fill in the templates with what they ask for. Add one link on that one-page-portal to take your readers to your published works at a publish-on-demand site like “Lulu.” Each “publish” site has its particular requirements, like Lulu requires the text fonts of your copy to be one of 6 fonts, eg. Arial,Courier,etc. The publish site gives lots of options for the reader to download your work. These options would cost you a fortune, or your sanity, to build into your one-page-portal. I speak as an expert of failed websites since 1995. You may see this principle (one-door-simplicity-portal;apartment-facility-complexity warehouse) applied at my present site at http://www.fivelements.net where the reader has a link at the bottom of the portal to visit a warehouse of my photos hosted by phanfare.com at http://www.claymoldenhauerimage.phanfare.com
This split between portal and warehouse has numerous advantages, one being the flexibility to hire and fire warehouses at will, and two being the ability to have multiple warehouses of differing contents.
clay
ps. This comment was re-sent with specific edits on the previous comment’s formatting to facilitate this WordPress blogging program’s attempts to process the embedded website addresses. Hover your cursor over the website addresses in both comments and see the difference. Had I the means to rescend the first comment, I would have. But with both, you have the opportunity to learn another detail of the complexities of blogging and webbing.
clay