On fiction, reality, and fantasy

Sol Sharp on 4 July, 2022

The Shmuley Myers books are in an alternate reality, where a constitutional amendment in America means that citizenship is awarded at the time of conception. Those folks of the XX chromosomal variety can see how this turns every non-term or non-live pregnancy into a murder investigation. And that follow-on legislation broke the separation of church and state concept in public and government.

When I started writing the series back in 2017, these were solidly fictional ideas. By April of 2022, fiction was clearly trending into a horrific reality. I’d gotten the cover down to draft form, and my editor returned comments on A Question of Allegiance, but… I couldn’t. I was depressed, anxious, and returning PTSD symptoms. Work stopped. My stress on the novel stopped me up entirely. And, for the record, when the writer’s unhappy, ain’t nobody happy.

This past weekend I got back into the saddle, if only on a different horse. YA fantasy, draft already complete, and spend a couple of days doing light editing, buoyed by how good a shape it was in. Once I got AQoA out the door, I think this is my next “polish and publish” project.

So that’s while I’ve been absent these past two months. But I still want to have the next installment of the series out in the fall of 2022.

Publishing In a Milieu Resembling My Fiction

Sol Sharp on 14 May, 2022

Asemic Writing, copyright (C) Daniel Friedman

A Day at the Zoo focuses on the subject of the unintended consequences of violating the barrier between church and state. It was intended to show the absurdity of trying to assign citizen to non-living tissue. (If this sounds like “pro-life” or “anti-abortion” flag waving, it’s not: it’s a point of view from someone who doesn’t share the same viewpoint. Also, I have the point of view of someone who, by virtue of his genetic makeup, shouldn’t be telling women one way or another how to deal with their lives.

At any rate, the leak of the deliberations of the Supreme Court has given those looking forward to a Puritanical state a huge jump in energy. Energy that quickly impinges on the rights of others. Other citizens, to be clear.

This has made editing The Property of Blood (Book #3) and writing A Measure of Mercy (#4) akin to climbing a mountain free-style. Added to figuring out how to publicize the existing A Day at the Zoo, and the forthcoming A Question of Allegiance, and I’m stuck in Sisyphussian space.

Fortunately, I’m doing a “learn about publishing” (instead of writing) retreat this weekend, at their house strategically located in the middle of nowhere (actually, beyond it). Starlink and power. And no looking at social media, no matter how hard it tries to stoke my outrage.

Here’s to becoming a marketing guru.

Publicity and Current Realities

Sol Sharp on 3 May, 2022

I was speaking with someone from a publicity agency and, after they reviewed some of the materials, the told me they were pro-life and was that a problem. A main premises of the book is the Constitutional Amendment that “life begins at conception, and citizenship is awarded at that time.” The series deals with what happens with unintended consequences, and the breaking down of state and church. Not in a grandiose way — it’s a murder mystery, taking place in this alternate history. Same as a murder mystery in the 1950s would make simple reference to the abridged and subordinate rights of African Americans. This is not a passion play screed in the guise of fiction. It’s fiction.

What I told the person was that I got the idea for this story based on something I read a few years back. It was the manslaughter prosecution of a woman in Missouri for the crime of having had a miscarriage. This is not a fluke, in October, 2021 a Native American was found guilty as well, and sentenced to four years in prison.