FLASH! LATE NEWS!. TRILOGY IN THE WORKS

My novel, "The Blending Time" is the first volume of a trilogy. My fingers have been at the keyboard this summer finishing the draft of volume 2.

Sci-Fi & Fantasy Art and illustration

A great annual series with the best in sci-fi illustration (and some dynamite art) is the SPECTRUM series edited by the Fenners. The most recent years are more inclusive and include all sorts of media from sculpture, graphic art, and fine paintings. Some are a bit sexy, like the cover girl here juggling orbs and floating above the ground (though tethered)--while others are anime-like, comic book art, retro sci-fi, and dragons galore. I can look thru these a dozen times and just sort of buzz off to other worlds and times. Check 'em out.

On Graphic Novels

I have a love-hate relationship with graphic novels. I love the ones that are works of art, like "The 300." But for me, many are little more than comic books (I love a good comic book--provided the drawing is great and original). Non-graphic novels allow the reader to create their own picture of the characters and their world. Many g-novels and anime are like TV-- you are a passive viewer and you can't feel you are part of the creative process.

Here is a 1935 "Graphic novel" called "Song without Words" by the famous graphic artist, Lynn Ward.

If you haven't read this YA/Adult dystopian novel...

A great book that kinda went under the radar is Jean Hegland's, Into the Forest. I've read it 2 or 3 times and her writing and the world and characters she creates are amazing. It's probably aimed at a YA audience, but older readers (like me) should find it enthralling. Here's a clip from Amazon:

Jean Hegland's prose in Into the Forest is as breathtaking as one of the musty, ancient redwoods that share the woodland with Nell and Eva, two sisters who must learn to live in harmony with the northern California forest when the electricity shuts off, the phones go out, their parents die, and all civilization beyond them seems to grind to a halt. At first, the girls rely on stores of food left in their parents' pantry, but when those supplies begin to dwindle, their only option is to turn to each other and the forest's plants and animals for friendship, courage, and sustenance. Into the Forest, an apocalyptic coming-of-age story, will fill readers (both teens and adults) with a profound sense of the human spirit's strength and beauty.

My new (and first!) YA novel

My YA novel, The Blending Time, will debut in early October 2010 by Flux Books. I am new at blogging, so forgive the underlining and whatever other garbage falls out of my posts.
It took me years--eons--to learn to write a decent manuscript, so this may be my 15 minutes of fame. Beneath the image I've posted an excerpt from Amazon's listing. Get your friends to rush out and buy dozens of copies! It's not a bad book, if I say so myself. (Blush). I'd be curious how many of you like dystopian fiction (where the near future is really messed up and people have to survive).

Congratulations on turning age seventeen. You are now ready for placement by the Council government.

"For kids in the year 2069, turning seventeen means they’re ripe for Global Alliance work assignments that range from backbreaking drudgery to deadly canal labor. Trying to survive in a desiccated world that’s been ravaged by plagues, AIDS III, and environmental disasters, three “s’teeners” from very different backgrounds think they’ve gotten lucky. Jaym, Reya, and D’Shay are chosen to be among thousands of blenders whose task is to help repopulate Africa after a solar flare left its people sterile.

But the continent itself—roiling with civil war and mercenaries intent on crushing the blending program at any cost—poses the gravest danger of all. Separated, the three friends struggle to escape horrific situations, somehow reunite, and reach a camp in the mountains that promises salvation from the harsh and threatening world."

"Shocking and unrelenting--Kinch delivers a blistering, no-holds-barred tale of a dystopian future that feels all too real"

(Arthur Slade, Governor General Award-winning author of The Hunchback Assignments.)