Author: Generation Mars

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Music notes for Food

I listen to a lot of music when I’m writing. At these times, I prefer instrumental things that don’t tug at my Wernicke’s. Phish is a good fit for this. On the journey to Mars, one of my characters listens to Phish much of the time. So did I as I wrote.

The image of a kid reclined and looking out at the stars as they move around him grabbed me early on. Pairing it with a long Phish jam seemed natural. The idea that this activity soothed his loneliness and hunger still causes me to tear up if I dwell on it for long. Music will do that.

An excerpt:
“Music played loudly from speakers hidden throughout the room. Guitar and keyboard and bass and drums were riffing and circling each other in a long and exuberant jam. As he watched the stars slide past behind the other pod, Keiron imagined he could feel the movement of the ship as it spun around its hub while following its orbit around a star that was circling the center of a galaxy, circles within circles within circles. In his mind, he got up from his chair and started spinning and dancing to the music, circles within circles within circles within circles. He had no energy for such activity, of course, but was content just to lie there and imagine it.”
–from Food: Generation Mars, Book Four

Here’s a track called Twist, from the live album Baker’s Dozen. After the abstract intro, it’s a classic example of a Phish jam piece.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldC6WHIz99Q

https://open.spotify.com/track/7bSpTQPBOQU2xiVl4LVS9K?si=a9e818bfc9624099

Key points of a Phish jam: There is usually an opening, with verses and chorus and bridge. The lyrics might be clever or meaningless. They’re just part of the vibe, so don’t look for deep universal insight. That’s found later and does not involve words. This section would be called the “head” in jazz parlance. Then there is often an extended period of quiet vamping, as the band members circle each other, waiting to see what will happen. They are looking for ground to launch from. Casually. Anticipation is the thing, and there is no hurry. In fact, you may not even realize it’s happened. At some point, you will notice you’ve lost track of details. The song has spun into something exquisite, possibly unexpected, and often nothing like the head. You might be spinning around the room. Maybe your head simply bobs as you type. Either way, you are smiling uncontrollably.

Hopefully, nobody walks in and poops on your vibe.

Image: Blurred image of a Tanoura dancer. Tanoura is a traditional folk dance in Egypt, where dancers spins to the tunes of Arabic songs. From Wikimedia Commons, by Dalia farid. License: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en). Image has been cropped.

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Music notes for Food

There are many musical references in my latest book. Such references are a challenge for an indie author. I have to be careful to not cross any fair use boundaries: artists and titles and bare hints of lyrics only. So I thought it might be fun to elaborate on some of them here.

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Food: Generation Mars, Book Four now available

Food: Generation Mars, Book Four has landed!

https://www.amazon.com/Food-Generation-Mars-Book-Four/dp/1733731083

Air, shelter, water, food: that was the plan. Following the success of the first book, Scratching the Surface, I would write four more. Each book would be a chapter book for advanced early readers and would address one of these fundamental elements of survival with a little vignette in which my protagonists deal with a crisis and, through their actions, teach the reader a little about science.

Things did not go to plan. I had too much to say for such constraints to hold. You might say my primary alignment failed and I broke containment.

Now, here we are at Food, the last planned book, and it’s a whopper. Believe me when I tell you: there is a lot in this book. I’m not even sure it’s a kids book. Categorizing it has been a challenge. Let’s say it’s upper middle grade/early young adult. Actually, no, let’s abandon such synthetic labeling and say it’s for anyone 11 to 100 who enjoys a rousing adventure with pathos and science and suspense and humor and failure and triumph. (For kids younger than that, parents may want to pre-read.)

What’s it like to release the last book in a series? I feel… wistful. A little. My own kids are growing up, just like my characters, and it’s hard to let eras go. But that’s what parents and authors must do. So–*sniffle*, *deep breath*–here it is, the last book of the Generation Mars series.

Well, sort of. The thing about eras is that there is always another. Food completes the planned survival element framework and ends in a satisfying place for the characters. But it also leaves the situation on Mars and Earth in a mess. That was on purpose. You should always leave a mess for the next series to clean up…

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Book Four, coming Monday

Coming Monday: the next installment of the Generation Mars saga.

Food: Generation Mars, Book Four.

When a misaligned AI makes Earth unreachable, families on the Moon must make a hard choice. Parents in two competing bases try to save their children by sending them to Mars on an aging spaceship, a journey that will take longer than supplies will last. As food runs out, the social order crumbles and factions form. Keiron Byrne (12 year old cousin to series protagonists Cas and Ori Byrne-Alli), Ro Cook (14 year old crush, bully, and eventual nemesis of Keiron), and Jun Tian (12 year old prodigy from the opposing base who has a secret that might save them all) must navigate starvation, racism, betrayal, and a ship that is beginning to behave very oddly.

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Crafting Generation Mars 16 (illustration)

Share examples of your ideas with your illustrator. Make mockups: physical, existing imagery, AI (if, like me, you can’t draw).

Share relevant excerpts from your manuscript with them. Share the whole manuscript if they want it. You have to give them plenty to work with.

Aside: Stop worrying about somebody stealing your work. The likelihood of that happening is vanishingly small. You’re never going to move forward if you worry about that.

images: 1) a physical mockup of the ice mine in Book Three, 2) a mockup map of the area around Dawn using public domain satellite imagery of Mars, 3) an AI mockup of Nour, a character from Book Three.

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Crafting Generation Mars 14 (illustration)

As the author, it’s important to own the copyright on your illustrations. You want to be able to remix them yourself and use them for future purposes (promos, merch, whatever), without having to ask permission.

Specify this in the contract. This will cost a bit more, but it’s worth it.

Also allow the artist to retain the right to display them in their portfolio. This helps them and can be good for you as well if they have social media reach.

image: Photograph of Greg Wilson taken by Ian Tilton. It was used as artwork for the Credit To the Edit album compilation by Greg Wilson released on Tirk Records. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Greg_Wilson_C2TE.jpg https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en

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Crafting Generation Mars 13 (illustration)

My current WIP is now in illustration. Since Generation Mars is a children’s book series, this means more than just a cover. How much more has been evolving along with my books. 

The prelude was an early reader chapter book and was filled with illustrations. Each successive book has been more advanced than its predecessors and has needed less illustration. For the penultimate book, Water, I had two maps and a diagram at the beginning, and an opening illustration for each of the three parts.

Aside: Writing a series that spans multiple maturity levels is not the best idea for marketing. I knew that and did it anyway, because that’s what I wanted to write. When you’re self publishing as a hobby, you can do stuff like that. Think hard, if this is not your situation.

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Crafting Generation Mars 12

For the current WIP (Food: Generation Mars, Book Four), I also have couple people providing sensitivity notes. This is a new thing for me. 

There are some delicate cultural interactions necessary to the plot. I think they’re ok, but I’m an upper middle-aged white guy, with all the blinders that entails. I don’t wanna mess this up.

 

image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Tsaag_Valren, license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en