Okay, so, the query letter and writing sample are off to my first choice agent. I'm trying not to think about it, because it's one of those things where maybe in three weeks my whole life could be radically different, but in the mean time I can't do anything about it.
What I am doing, in the interim, is indulging in some vintage science fiction. Specifically, I'm rereading the Pelbar Cycle, by Paul O Williams. I have never, in all of my years, met someone else who has read these books. They meant a lot to me in my youth, though, so I'm happy to be going through them again.
They're set in America, about one thousand years after a nuclear holocaust. There are a lot of references to The Time of Fire and Empty Places and The Ancients and their mystical Artificial Stone. Anyway. It came out in the early eighties, when this sort of thing was weighing heavily on our minds. It's hard to remember, sometimes, that most of my childhood was lived under the threat of nuclear war, both implied and actual. Anyway, this series had a huge impact on my early imagination, and I spent way too much time thinking about life...after. Way after.
But one of the things I love best about this series, and all vintage science fiction for that matter, is the covers. They're ridiculous. Let's take today's book, for example. It's the third book in the series, and it's called The Dome in the Forest. First off, the Dome is not in any kind of Forest. It is in an Empty Place. So the book is misnamed. Classic vintage motif. The Noun (in/of/from/etc) the Noun. Great. I'm pretty sure the cover artist didn't read the book. In fact, I'm not even sure he was correctly given the (incorrect) title. There is a forest, certainly, deeply arborial and riddled with flora rampant. And then, inexplicably, there is a stone. Not a dome. A stone. As in obelisk. Better yet, this completely misplaced and quite possibly misunderstood stone is, get this, glowing. Glowing. Like a fucking flashlight. Like jesus fucking christ, descending onto the olive mount. A glowing stone, in a forest. I mean, honestly.
Other than that, it's a great book. Really well written, too. This time through the story I know that Williams is a christian scientist (as in the religion, not as in a scientist who is a christian) so I'm tracking the stuff he's put in from that front. It makes for a good read.
What I am doing, in the interim, is indulging in some vintage science fiction. Specifically, I'm rereading the Pelbar Cycle, by Paul O Williams. I have never, in all of my years, met someone else who has read these books. They meant a lot to me in my youth, though, so I'm happy to be going through them again.
They're set in America, about one thousand years after a nuclear holocaust. There are a lot of references to The Time of Fire and Empty Places and The Ancients and their mystical Artificial Stone. Anyway. It came out in the early eighties, when this sort of thing was weighing heavily on our minds. It's hard to remember, sometimes, that most of my childhood was lived under the threat of nuclear war, both implied and actual. Anyway, this series had a huge impact on my early imagination, and I spent way too much time thinking about life...after. Way after.
But one of the things I love best about this series, and all vintage science fiction for that matter, is the covers. They're ridiculous. Let's take today's book, for example. It's the third book in the series, and it's called The Dome in the Forest. First off, the Dome is not in any kind of Forest. It is in an Empty Place. So the book is misnamed. Classic vintage motif. The Noun (in/of/from/etc) the Noun. Great. I'm pretty sure the cover artist didn't read the book. In fact, I'm not even sure he was correctly given the (incorrect) title. There is a forest, certainly, deeply arborial and riddled with flora rampant. And then, inexplicably, there is a stone. Not a dome. A stone. As in obelisk. Better yet, this completely misplaced and quite possibly misunderstood stone is, get this, glowing. Glowing. Like a fucking flashlight. Like jesus fucking christ, descending onto the olive mount. A glowing stone, in a forest. I mean, honestly.
Other than that, it's a great book. Really well written, too. This time through the story I know that Williams is a christian scientist (as in the religion, not as in a scientist who is a christian) so I'm tracking the stuff he's put in from that front. It makes for a good read.
I will have to look into the Pelbar Cycle. I haven't read any sci-fi in quite a while. Sadly, I'm trying to remember what I did last read that wasn't internet related. sigh.
I do have to chuckle about the cover art. Do artist read? Huh, I thought they just made pretty drawrings.