Moses and Me

Ted Krever: Writing and other forms of torture Posted on by

Of course, we didn’t have paper or quills, but nice likeness otherwise…

Weird guy, Moses. Reminds me of Lincoln. Brooders, both of ‘em. No, not brothers, brooders. Sat around brooding all night. Don’t let them get near the mead or you’ll pay for it.

Moses would sit around the campfire some nights and just whine like a little girl. It wasn’t befitting, if you ask me, for somebody God elected. One vote’s all you need if it’s the right one.

They don’t appreciate me, they don’t want to be free. Sure they want to be free, I said, they just don’t understand how hard it is, they’ve got a slave’s idea of freedom, all dancing and singing and running around with the other guy’s wife or sister or daughter or whatever. That’s sick, he said—not exactly in those words. We’ll put a stop to that pretty quick, he said and he did. You ask me, there were originally like maybe six commandments. Once he didn’t like something, he did something about it. And it always seemed to me the handwriting on the last few commandments wasn’t the same as the rest but it’s been a long time since I checked.

You had to be very careful with your campfires with him, too. I remember one time I was going to pick this bush for the campfire and he says, “Not that one!” And proceeds to talk to it like it’s an old friend. “Can I take this one?” I said and he just waved like sure, whatever. Very quirky guy. Not always easy to work with. This, they don’t tell you in history.

And then he comes down from the mountain with the commandments and after that, you’d think he was so special. Wouldn’t get a haircut, got like three or four of the same robes made so he always looked like Moses. Like we had anybody else to take fashion sense from—Abraham was no pillar of hot fashion, let me tell you. Jacob, maybe. Joseph got his coat from him, so he inherited, y’know? It’s not the same.

But Moses’ moods got worse toward the end. One night, he said to me, “I could have been Pharoah” and of course, I knew what was coming. “You led a whole nation; God talks to you,” I tried but no use. “I want a pyramid,” he said. It was getting late and we were both tired. This was just after God killed Aaron’s sons so things were tense. “I want a pyramid of my own.” And then, there’s a bolt of lightning strikes a tree right near by and he waves his hand and yells, “Okay, can’t a guy talk?” He didn’t have an easy time of it.

So I promised him a pyramid that night but I never came through on it. When God says “Cross the river,” you cross the river. You’ve got to know where your bread is buttered—or milk n’ honeyed, in this case.

 

How Amazon’s KDP Select works

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Editor’s Note: This information is no longer current. Amazon has heavily reduced the effect freebies have on your sales rank. So this is now a history piece, no longer a ‘how-to’…

There’s been loads of ink about Amazon’s KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) Select, but I haven’t seen much clear explanation about what it is and, more importantly, what it can do, so I’m going to offer my experience here.

KDP Select asks you, the writer, to agree to publish exclusively with Amazon for 90 days. In exchange, Amazon will let its Amazon Prime members ‘borrow’ your book (one book at a time) for as long as they want – and will let you give your book away, free, five days in that 90-day period.

When I first heard about this, I thought it was a hell of a deal – they get exclusivity and I get to give my books to people without getting paid for it. But there’s more to it, dear reader.

First of all, you do get paid for the loaners–Amazon sets up a fund each month and divides it in a pro-rated fashion based on the number of loaners you’ve had during the period. You don’t know exactly how much you’ll be paid in a given month, but loaner payments have averaged around $2 a book recently, which is very similar to the royalty for a sale of a $2.99 Kindle book.

Here’s the kicker, which Amazon never lays out explicitly anywhere I’ve seen: there are all sorts of websites that highlight free Kindle books. When you give yours away, you will often see a hive-like grabbing of free copies – and all those freebies are counted as though they were sales by Amazon when your book goes back on sale (for real money) the next day. Which makes your book shoot up the list in its category. 

So if you give away a thousand copies and those freebies send you from #657 on the Mindless Geek Literature category (Is that a real category? It should be) to #35, you made a very good deal. ‘Mindbenders’ has gone from #300-something to the Top Forty in the US and to #1 in the UK with one day’s free promotion – and that led to weeks sometimes of much better sales than I’d previously seen.

I have never found a way to reliably predict what effect free promotion will have on any given date. I paid a popular website once to promote the book on a weekend freebie day and got very few downloads. I totally ignored the freebie, told nobody the next time (in the middle of a work week) and got thousands. I’ve seen the numbers dip with repeated use and then skyrocket again with no discernable reason.

So I’ve found the program probably the most useful promotional tool for Kindle books that I’ve encountered – but it’s unpredictable. As my old aunts would say, it couldn’t hurt.

Good hunting…

 

Committed

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Writing a novel isn’t an act of commitment–it’s ten thousand acts of commitment.

A vision pops into your head and you know there’s more and it’s miraculous and brilliant, you can feel it right there, just beyond your fingertips.

You start writing it down – and the work starts. Because somehow the words on the page (or the screen, in my case) never match the vision in your head, never fully capture it. That doesn’t matter  at first – the visions keep coming, images and vivid moods that you struggle to get down before they fade.

Which, inevitably, they begin to do. That’s where the commitment comes, over and over and over. You have to get up every morning and add something to the pile of dry tinder you’ve collected, hoping to find something that’ll eventually catch fire. Every once in a while, a little something does and that sustains you through months of sticks and dry leaves, of sitting in front of that empty screen and hoping for something better than you’re getting.

Commitment is the day you look at three months work and think ‘Okay, this doesn’t work,’ throwing it all out and starting over.  Commitment is when you realize with gut-churning clarity that the whole thing is a crock of shit and you’ve thrown away two years of your life – and then go back to writing it the next morning.

And then somewhere toward the end,  you start clearing away the driftwood, everything that isn’t absolutely crucial and all kinds of little moments start to come together in ways you never anticipated; the characters suddenly aren’t wooden and stupid, they start acting and speaking for themselves and having marvelous insights that couldn’t possibly have come from you. At this point, commitment is doing whatever is necessary to keep up. You fly through that last major rewrite thrilled and terrified, eating badly and digesting worse, getting palpitations in the afternoon and not sleeping well at night and promising yourself you’ll never do this ever again –  you’ll be way more organized next time.

And then a vision pops into your head…

 

Four New ‘MIndbenders’ reviews!

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Two 5 star, two ‘meh’ (can’t please everyone) – however, based on the last comment, I might charge more in future:

5.0 out of 5 stars Who gains?, June 26, 2012

By Wanda “Wandah Panda” (Pretoria, South Africa)

I downloaded this book for free on an Amazon promotion, am I glad I did.

I adore this book. The plot is complicated without being confusing, the story is fresh and engaging and the characters are fully formed and fledged out.
The title alone should tell you what the basic premise of the book is. The question is, what happens to a project upon which the government has given up. A project that was marginally successful. What if the people in the project carries on with their tasks, who is bankrolling it and to which end? If the CIA, FBI, NSA etc is no longer involved, black opps is not an option, who and why is the project still active?I give this book a smooth 8 * review, it is different from most books I have read recently and I commend the author on using the cold war and it’s consequences to such delectable reading.

 

5.0 out of 5 stars Roller Coaster Read, June 26, 2012
This was a great fun read! I read it in 2 days, on lunch and after work. It really makes you think about what the govenment is really doing. I would reccomend this to anyone. It had many twists and turns that I didn’t expect, fast paced, and great dialoge! I even got the second book, I haven’t started it yet, but I am sure it will be as great as the first!

 

(Author’s Comment: The second book Colleen’s referring to is ‘After,’ the book of post 9/11 short stories I’m giving away with ‘Mindbenders.’ The second ‘Mindbenders’ is heavily in progress but not ready yet – don’t want to confuse anybody)

 

3.0 out of 5 stars Maybe I need to read the literature the author mentions, June 24, 2012

By Billy
Maybe I’d appreciate this novel more if I were more familiar with the literature regarding mind control programs that the author references. The writing is good with a good sense of humor mixed in to a serious story, but overall the premise didn’t resonate with me.

 

3.0 out of 5 stars Buy the sequel, June 22, 2012

By Chloe Cat “Chloe” (Wisconsin)

I’m only giving this a 3 star because it’s obvious the purpose is to get you hooked to buy the sequel(s). However, unlike Dean Koontz, this book doesn’t stand well on it’s own. I think it has a weak ending, as if author reached the max number of pages he wanted to write and then just rushed to end the book. On the other hand, I got it as a free KIndle download and it was a quick read and I did finish it. I might buy the sequels if the price is cheap enough, but not for anything over $5.00.

(Author’s Comment: I don’t believe in being too sensitive about reviews – everyone’s entitled to their opinion – but I will just say that I intended the ending to feel rushed, like Greg was writing it on the run. Chloe’s not the only one who’s mentioned it, though, so I’ll work on this next time.  On the other hand, she complains about me wanting to get her hooked (isn’t that my job?) and then pretty much admits that she is, as long as I keep the price of subsequent books under $5. I was figuring on $2.99 or $3.99. Maybe I should raise the price? Hmmm…)

 

Writing the ‘Mindbenders’ Sequel, Chapter 2,136

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My horoscope said I should be full of creative ideas yesterday and today. Naturally, I’ve been doing everything but writing.

All things that need to be done, of course – working on my future,  my spiritual growth and practical happiness. But not writing, not yet.

I’m about two-thirds of the way through a proper first draft – I have an old finished one but it didn’t work for a wide variety of reasons, so this is the new and improved version. This one is much more driven by the character’s internal conflict than the last. But, after working most of the way by compacting and reworking material from the last draft, I’ve come to the point where those internal conflicts and more-sharply-drawn feelings have to come to a head. I’ve returned to the no-man’s land that is a writer’s natural habitat: the blank page.

I have lots of notes, lots of ideas for the last third but nothing written. I think I know all the threads that have to ripple through the story but I haven’t the slightest idea how they’re going to do it.

I also know that it’ll start happening as soon as I stop trying. So…

 

‘Non-Stop Action’ – Another new ‘Mindbenders’ review

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4.0 out of 5 stars Good Futuristic Story that Makes You Stop and Think
 June 14, 2012 By Michael Gallagher (Houston, TX)
 I really enjoyed this book, as the author quickly gets you into the head (pun intended) of his characters. From start to finish, the book is pretty much non-stop action and there are some shades of the happenings in this book of things I have read about trying to occur in various research institutions and governments. It does make you step back outside of the novel and think “what if” on today’s society and some of the crazy stuff you hear about happening in the world.

One drawback on this book for me was the ending – it just stops with an abrupt ending – and the “Now” chapter appears to have been rushed as if the author was tired of writing. What a letdown, but the other 99.9% of the book was great.

I originally picked this up during a free Kindle promotion and, as I type this review I see the pricing is $2.99 – you will get more than $2.99 of value out of this and I recommend it.

 

‘Not Sure It’s My Type of Book’ – ‘Mindbenders’ review

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From Indie e-book Review, June 13, 2012:

When I started reading Mindbenders I wasn’t entirely sure it was my kind of book. And I’m still not sure. However it started with a bang with the murder of the man that Greg, the main character, calls Uncle Dave, and the first paragraph pulled me right in as ‘Uncle Dave lay in the tub dead: blank-faced, stupid-looking, lights-out-nobody’s-home dead’.

Greg is not your typical hero type. He’s a war vet who doesn’t speak. He lives with Dave and an assortment of other war-damaged vets. As the story progresses he starts to emerge from his shell and he not only speaks, but also develops mind bending skills, although not to the same degree as Max Renn, who takes him under his wing.

Max Renn appears shortly after the murder of Dave, and he and Greg go on the run to escape from the killers. Greg’s confusion is well depicted, as is his mistrust of Max Renn. He can’t understand why Dave was murdered, or why the killers appear to be hunting him and Max. All he knows is they are on the run and they have to find some other people. Greg is the only one who knows who these people are but he can only give one name at a time. Apparently Dave has implanted these names in his memory.

As the story progresses he comes to realise that Max Renn can read minds and implant suggestions into the minds of others. These are the skills he also starts to develop, and the group of people they are looking for possess mind bending skills as well. But that is not all. The killers on their trail are also mindbenders.

The chase part of the book is full of action and suspense as Greg and his band of mindbenders try to outwit the killers on their trail. And then the book seems to take a different direction, developing a conspiracy theme involving a company called L Corps, at which point the hunted become the hunters. I felt the narrative slowed down a bit when this phase was entered, however it picked up again before the end and finished with a nail-biting climax involving the battle of the mindbenders.

My overall feeling about the book was that it was an interesting premise, and I accepted the initial mind bending skills of the characters, however, as these skills grew in variety – lightning rays thrown from fingertips and so forth, I felt it was testing my suspension of disbelief. That may be just me, and if you can accept poltergeists and the paranormal, you may not have this problem.

On the whole, it was an interesting read with plenty of pace, and it kept me guessing. So it satisfied me on all those points, although I’m still not sure it was my type of book.

Reviewed by Chris Longmuir

This is an interesting review. The writer’s few actual comments are pretty positive. ‘Started with a bang’ and ‘nail-biting climax’ works for me. He spends most of the review describing the story and grappling with his own limits for suspension of disbelief.

One of my best friends, who loves my writing, can’t get through ‘Mindbenders’ because he just can’t accept mindreading, telekinesis, etc. Nothing wrong with that. But one of the tricky limitations of being a professional reviewer is, you have to read all kinds of books you would never choose on your own. And that limits the usefulness of your review for the book’s most enthusiastic readership, since ‘not bad, considering it’s not my kind of book’ is about the best a writer can hope for in that situation.

Which is why, over the course of the last year, I’ve come to see reader reviews as actually more useful and interesting.

 

Unconditional Love, Unconditional Everything

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CO Moed has written a beautiful piece about a subject close to my heart, to my life as a reader (which is where writers start). I’m commending it to you here. Please click the link to continue reading on her site and, if you find yourself nodding as you read, do something about it. Her post:

This guy I once dated said libraries were for poor people.  I should have broken up with him then, but fear of loneliness can make one quite stupid.  If only I had gone then to the library and taken out books on self-esteem… continue reading

 

‘Rang My Bells on Every Level’- New ‘Mindbenders’ Review!

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5.0 out of 5 stars Down the Rabbit Hole, May 23, 2012
In his book “Mindbenders”, Ted Krever leads the reader on an antic chase up the Eastern seaboard and across the Atlantic to Europe, never slowing down until the last line. The narrator, Gregor, simultaneously discovers and reveals missing pieces of his own life as a member of a team of CIA-trained “Mindbenders”, while he and his former colleagues concurrently chase and try to elude a rogue faction with similar powers bent on violently overthrowing society.

In “Mindbenders” I found some echoes of Jonathan Lethem’s book”Motherless Brooklyn”, which also features a man with a hazy and unusual past (and unusual “powers”) on a quest to unravel and stymie a mysterious plot that unfolds through his eyes. I read Lethem’s book in one weekend; Krever’s book held me to my chair for one marathon reading that rang my bells on every level and satisfied my voracious appetite for engaging, believable characterization and fast-moving story.

There really were American programs to explore the possible uses of “psychic” abilities in covert and illegal tests on humans, using substances and drugs, often without the informed consent of the subjects themselves. Among the subjects were author Ken Kesey and Unabomber Theodore Kaczinski. Kever extrapolates from these programs (most records of which were destroyed by order of then-CIA Director Richard Helms, in the face of a pending investigation) and spins an intriguing tale that explores the question of “what if…the experiments led to real and powerful abilities to monitor, predict and alter the minds of human beings? …what if there were several similar programs incubating around the globe? …what if someone turned these abilities to their own uses without scruple? In these days of global political turmoil these “what-ifs” are all too plausible, something Krever brilliantly explores here.

I understand there is a sequel in the works to be published later this year. Add my name to that waiting list.

Still Sherlock…

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It’s Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s birthday! He’s a sprightly 153!

Sherlock - watch it!

 

I’ve been watching the amazing ‘Sherlock’ on PBS lately and then went back to the first episode on Netflix last night. Smitty turned me on to the series but she shouldn’t have had to. I was a little put-off by the description: Holmes and Watson as young guys in present day, Watson a blogger back from Afghanistan, Holmes obsessively texting, sped-up editing a la the Bourne films, etc.

None of that matters. My argument for years has been that Sherlock Holmes is the Shakespeare canon of mystery and suspense – the stories will be reworked and new ones added, endless interpretations and viewpoints to the end of time. The essence of Sherlock remains – the difficulty of being brilliant. Poirot was Sherlock – Agatha Christie admitted it. ‘House’ was Sherlock. So, at times, was John Lennon. Brains to burn and utter impatience at routine. Seeing the world with more vivid eyes than the rest of us.

That is what makes the new series so wonderful, that same conundrum of brilliance battling ennui wrapped in the new language of filmmaking and the new frankness that allows the show to toy with Holmes’ sexuality (or lack thereof) in a way previous versions (Billy Wilder’s ‘The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes’ the rare exception) couldn’t.

Jeremy Brett as Holmes

I enjoyed the Jeremy Brett Granada TV series (Smitty didn’t)  – this was the traditional canon done with all its creakiness intact. See, one of the unspoken realities is that an awful lot of the Holmes stories aren’t really much good – Doyle tired quickly of the potboiler mysteries. The character’s great but the stories vary widely. The Brett series did them all. Sometimes the adaptations were far better than the original stories, but sometimes they weren’t and that faithfulness sometimes proved a weakness.

Smitty and I both enjoyed the Robert Downey steampunk Holmes movies, though I don’t think they’re anywhere near as clever as the new PBS shows. Downey’s are Hollywood fireworks versions, just a romp, a couple of hours with popcorn. Both the Brett and the new PBS shows are better to my taste.

Watson, Holmes and Freud

My favorite Sherlock isn’t readily available, though I managed to grab a (somewhat-legal) copy once in desperation. It’s ‘The Seven Per Cent Solution’ and it’s not a Conan Doyle story at all. The script was written by Nicholas Meyer (who wrote most of the decent original ‘Star Trek’ pictures) based on his own novel and it tells the story of how Professor Moriarty was in fact not Holme’s archenemy, how Holmes and Moriarty never went over Reichenbach Falls together, why Holmes disappeared for two years (Conan Doyle swore he was done with him and was forced to bring him back by the fans – but Meyer knows better).

It’s a brilliantly witty script with an amazing cast: Nicol Williamson as a very skittish neurotic Holmes, Robert Duvall unrecognizable as Watson, Sir Lawrence Olivier as Moriarty, Vanessa Redgrave at her most beautiful as Lola Deveraux and Alan Arkin as Sigmund Freud, who gets to say ‘Elementary, my dear Watson.’ Highly recommended if you can find it.

Watch the new ‘Sherlock’ – it’s terrific. And here’s to twenty more interpretations of this unquenchable character before we die.