Wednesday, July 18, 2007
The Real Peculiar, MO

This entry follows up on a previous one was that was deleted in error, so if you see some stuff you think you may have read before, that’s why.

As I was stating earlier, the town my book is named after is a real place, and my book, although fiction, covers a lot of the real town’s geography and history, including the story of how the town got its name. (You’ll have to read the prologue I’ve attached to learn that one.)

Peculiar is about an hour south of Kansas City, near the border of Kansas. It has about 2600 people in it. If you drive down highway 71 you might catch a glimpse of its water towers. Other than that, the only way you would know it’s there is the exit sign. If you didn’t live there, you would probably just stop for some gas at the stations just off the exit if you needed to fill up, and then continue on your way. It is a quiet town with friendly people and down-to-earth, unassuming ways.

I set the book in Peculiar for a couple of reasons. First, the charm of the town’s name was irresistible. Second, I wanted to write a book set in the kind of culture I grew up in. I’m from Pleasant Hill, a town about an hour east of Peculiar, and I wanted to portray life in a small Midwestern town, a culture which seems to be vanishing as suburbs spread out and engulf rural areas. For more about this, see my earlier blog post on writing an American science fiction novel. The traditional setting provided a stark contrast to the surreal plot of the book.

It should show up on Amazon in the next couple of weeks, and it’s already available for direct order from the publisher. So far I’ve gotten some great feedback on the prologue I put up. (Thanks to Shadowkatz for the comment! I’d love to hear more!) I hope everyone is getting as excited as I am!

Posted by Robert Williams 2007-07-18 23:06:11

Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Here at Last

My new book is finally ready for order direct from the publisher. It will be a few more weeks yet before you can get it on Amazon.com. You can link to the site from here. Check out the cover:

Pretty cool, eh? I took the cover photograph myself, and I'm very happy with thejob the designers did setting it up. That sunburst coming through the leaves gives a great sense of energy.The faded background also sets it off well. I'm very excited that it's finally here!

iUniverse's website has a "Browse Before You Buy" option, so you can read as much as you like before deciding if you want to buy it. It's availableas both a trade paperback and an Adobe eBook.

Of course,all feedback and questions are welcome!

Posted by Robert Williams 2007-07-10 00:16:24

Friday, July 6, 2007
American Sci-Fi

The publisher is getting my book set up for printing, so it should become available through them any day now. Meantime, I wanted to blog some more about it.

Most science fiction takes place in a future time when the national and political climate is greatly changed and the nations as we know them today no longer exist. I wanted to take a different approach with my book, Peculiar, MO. Just as The Wizard of Oz was the first attempt to create a fairy tale out of entirely American elements, I wanted to write an American science fiction story. Not one set in the future either, I wanted my story set in the present day, so it’s immediate and relatable. I also wanted to avoid setting it in a large city; no Independence Day here. Peculiar is set in real, small town America.

I used this setting to show some of the aspects of American culture, both good and bad. You have a country that values liberty and self-reliance above all else, but with large numbers of people living in poverty due to circumstances beyond their control and with no way to improve themselves. A country that claims the rights of the individual take priority above all else, where the government often spies on its own citizens and revokes civil rights in the name of security. A country fiercely proud of its culture and heritage, which nevertheless is swiftly eroding that same heritage through commercialism, overdevelopment and the revision of its history according to shifting political moods. You have the most multicultural country in the world becoming increasingly afraid of “aliens” and outside forces.

Sci-fi is famous for portraying strange, alien cultures, but oddly enough it rarely portrays culture in the world as it is today. Off the top of my head, I can only think of a few examples of science fiction that portray any modern world culture. I suppose John Wyndham’s The Midwich Cuckoos (upon which Village of the Damned was based) does a good job portraying Great Britain during the Cold War. (My British friends can certainly correct me if I’m wrong.) France is lucky to have had Jules Verne for many reasons, not the least of which is Paris in the Twentieth Century.Arthur C. Clarke takes a look at Sri Lankan culture inThe Fountains of Paradise.

Posted by Robert Williams 2007-07-06 00:07:56

Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Return of Atlantis

The title of this entry does not refer to the mythical lost city. Actually, I'm writing about the space shuttle Atlantis, which returns to Earth on Thursday after a 13-day mission to the International Space Station. They've spent the last two weeks installing some new trusses to the space station and hooking up a pair of new solar power arrays.

They have also had a couple of problems, which happens on any complex engineering project. After hooking up one of the power feeds, some computers crashed on the Russian side of the space station. The computers controlled the station's orientation and oxygen production. Fortunately, they got the computers rebooted without too many problems and everything seems to be up and running again just fine.

The problem which attracted the most media attention, however, was the four-inch hole in Atlantis's thermal protection that was found shortly after the ship got into orbit.Everyone still remembers Columbia.The mission was originally slated for 11 days, but it was exended to 13 so they could repair the peeled-back thermal blanket near Atlantis's tail. They now state they have everything fixed up and NASA has scheduled Atlantis to land on Thursday.

Now let's all send some good thoughts their way...

Posted by Robert Williams 2007-06-19 01:22:20

Thursday, May 24, 2007
One Night in Greensburg

Greensburg is a little town in Kiowa County, KS. Some Googling tells me it had about 1500 people in it. Back in my college days I used to drive through it three or four times a year on highway 54 as I made my way to and from Kansas City. It was a charming little town. Its main tourist attractions were the world's largest hand-dug well and a 1000-pound pallasite meteorite someone had dug up, God knows where.That wasin addition to its old turn-of-the-century stagecoach town atmosphere, with its one-screen movie theater and a soda fountain in the local drugstore.

I spent a night in a motel there when I was finally done with college and moved back home. This was about seven years ago. At the time, I was pulling an overloaded u-haul trailer with a Ford Taurus that already had about 150,000 miles on it. (The suspension never recovered.) I also had my dog and three cats inside too. The lady at the motel's desk said no problem, pets were welcome. I settled in my room, ordered a pizza, and went on my way the next day. I didn't expect to see Greensburg again, not unless I made another drive out west on vacation or something. I didn't expect that Greensburg's days were numbered.

On May 4, an EF5 tornado swept through the town, the first category 5 tornado in eight years. Ninety-five percent of the town was completely destroyed, and ten people died. Kiowa County was officially declared a disaster area.

Tornadoes are a fact of life in the Midwest. I've been through several myself. They'rea danger unique to our region that we've accepted, like earthquakes in California and hurricanes along the Gulf Coast. This doesn't lessen the scope of the tragedy, but I hope it puts it in perspective. With the help aid relief and insurance, for the lucky insured, many of residents of Greensburg will start to rebuild, right where they are. Most of the ones who do leave the town probably won't leave the state. They're tough, prairie folk, who are happy where they are, and it will take more than a little tornado to break their spirits.

In the meantime though, they could certainly use some help getting back on their feet, so anyone who wants to swing by http://www.redcross.org/donate/donate.htmland make a donation will earn the gratitude of a lot of Kansans.

Posted by Robert Williams 2007-05-24 22:36:11