Richard Parry: writer, liar, superhero
This one’s a bit long, but if you want a feeling for how cyberpunk IRL is right now, check this: “Google and Facebook have created involuntary manslaughter of the truth on a massive scale.” Corporations don’t want profits at the moment. They want power, but will probably settle for your soul 🙂
Today’s #RichardWrites is from Tyche’s Deceit, they second book in the Tyche’s Journey trilogy. I’m experimenting with points-of-view and types of exposition; it’s a little bit new, so I’d be interested in what you think 🙂 The two air cars screamed over the streets, engines burning hard. Citizens would have been looking up, wondering what was going on. Looking at what would cause a disturbance like this in their boring, safe lives in the very heart of the Republic. The lead car would have wobbled a little, the trained eye picking up a disturbance in the port thruster. Just a little noise in the burn, a bubble in the feed. Nothing serious under normal situations, something that might be rectified with ten minutes of maintenance by a skilled Engineer. The situation wasn’t normal, and there was no time for maintenance. The pilot Read More …
The crew of the Tyche (?) is more than the Nate & Grace duo. It takes all types to crew a starship. Often as not, the crew are better at lifting heavy things rather than their skill with words. Meet October Kohl – deckhand of the Tyche. Yeah yeah, first draft, but let me know what you think. October Kohl was drunk. He knew it. That asshole who was eying him up knew it. The bartender knew it. The … proprietor of the brothel he’d just been thrown out of knew it. The question was not whether he was drunk, but whether it would hold him up any. He put a hand out in front of him, looking at the way it held in space. It wasn’t waving all over the place, but it wasn’t steady as a rock either. That meant Read More …
A while ago I wrote a short story called Sleepless. A few people have asked about it so I’m going to crank it out as a freebie for my mailing list or something. I have mocked up some cover roughs — love to hear which appeal to you most (and why). Blurb for it is below for context. Go on. I know everyone’s got an opinion, and I’m actually ASKING for yours. Free shot! Right where it hurts. Do it. If sleeping meant dying, could you stay awake forever? Jennifer Prescott is the commander of the Texas. She’s hauled on the big starship for as long as anyone that matters. On a routine voyage, things start to go wrong. For starters? There’s that damned sound. It’s everywhere, making the Texas shake like a terrified child. If it was just the Read More …
More Tyche’s Flight (?) today — this one’s a little farther on from last week’s sample. Standard disclaimers of doom apply: first draft, looks like a jar of pickled sphincters, but I’d still love to know what you think. He kept up his saunter. No need to spoil the effect as he approached the finish line. He ducked into the doorway next to her. “Hi.” “Let’s go,” she said. “Let’s not,” he said. He leaned into the alcove, a crook that felt like it was tailor-made for just this kind of conversation. “We haven’t discussed terms. We haven’t discussed where we’re going. The most important thing we haven’t discussed,” and here he paused as a particularly loud fusillade of plasma fire from down the street cut him off, “how on Earth, her mighty heavens, the stars we travel across, and the senate Read More …
I thought I’d share with you all a little sample of Tyche’s Flight ? This is first draft stuff, real rough? Let me know what you think ? He would always remember the first time she lied to him. Nate was sitting in a spacer bar — not that it had signs up saying Spacer Bar or Drunk Crew Welcome. It was the way it smelled more than anything, old engine oil overlaid with that unmistakable tang of ozone that came from working heavy machines or plasma cannons. Beer, vat-grown because out here that was the best way to get good results; you never knew what strain of modified soy was being used on-planet for your drink. The smell of sweat, and sometimes, of anger. That last was typical. Drunk Crew Welcome wasn’t always a good thing. “Captain Chevell,” said the man across from Read More …
This is an archive copy of one of my world-famous email campaigns, sent 28 June 2017. Click to view the PDF, because the copy-paste below leaves a lot to be desired. My God, It’s Full of Stars I’m busy working on the results of my reader survey, but the One Thing section responses gave me some really interesting stuff. It’s prompted me to look at some mor interaction with y’all. This week, we’ve got: Questions, and how to ask ’em. More space opera! A reminder on the Urban Fantasy promo that ends in two days. Onward, friend. How to ask me a question I’ve created this thing: Put Me To The Question It’s a simple web form that will allow you to ask me a question. Anonymously, if you so desire; while a bunch of you write to me, a bunch Read More …
People are telling me they like the way Night’s End starts, so I thought I’d share it outside of the book because I’m fueled by positive praise. You can get Night’s End on Kindle, iBooks, and Kobo here: https://www.books2read.com/NightsEnd. The Russian stood in front of him like this kind of thing happened every day. Like being in front of a vampire was a thing that a man could get used to. Like he didn’t really care how this turned out — maybe they could hit the bars after, shoot some pool, but they’d need to agree on what kind of drinking they’d be doing. Dragomir liked that about him. Of course, drinking could come later. Right now, they were in a shack, tucked between two warehouses. The lighting outside was poor, which was the idea, and the lighting inside wasn’t Read More …
I watched Jessica Chastain today speaking truth to power. Yeah, I’m a bit late to the party – it’s been a busy past couple weeks. Me seeing it late is not the important thing here 🙂 The important thing is her message. In case, like me, you’ve been living under a rock, here’s the relevant bit: Say that, @jes_chastain. https://t.co/H7QHnEE5JA — Ava DuVernay (@ava) May 29, 2017 “The one thing that I really took away from this experience is how the world views women … when we include more female storytellers, we will have more of the women that I recognize in my day to day life. Ones that are more proactive, have their own agency … their own point of view.” This is important to me, because when we’re not equal it’s just not fair. I was raised with Read More …
This is an archive copy of one of my world-famous email campaigns, sent 17 May 2017. Click to view the PDF, because the copy-paste below leaves a lot to be desired. I have been spending more time than is probably healthy considering creativity and how it works. Does it come from a muse? The bottom of a bottle? Life experiences? Probably all of those contribute, but in my case, a great chunk of it comes from music. I have different types of music I listen to when writing different types of things — I tend to like rock music for action scenes, for example*. * This means there’s a lot of rock music in my writing life. The Music of Night’s Champion When writing the books of the Night’s Champion I tried to listen to music with a certain theme. Read More …