New ebook: Counterfeit Souls

The new ebook I promised is up! Feast your eyes on the cover for my newest ebook, Counterfeit Souls:

I've put more time and effort into this book than any other work I've ever done. It is my first attempt at humor, and I laced it with a dark edge. Think Good Omens, but a little more absurd, sci-fi styled, and more dangerous. This is a book I really think people are going to enjoy.

It follows two characters: Dr. Newton is a lazy genius and a poor human being who was handed a new Soul Forge business-- which he is running into the ground. The other is a demon named Zagan, the Demon protector of Counterfeiting. Zagan needs Dr. Newton for one of his schemes and will do anything to achieve his goals, but Dr. Newton is just looking for the path of least resistance.

I hope you will give it a try!

A NaNo loss:

Well, I didn't win NaNo this year, but I did double the size of my work in progress while working full time and studying 30+ hours a week. So it's a loss I'm willing to take :)

On the bright side, school is winding down for the semester and that means I will soon have more time to read and write. I also just got back the covers for the two new ebooks I will be releasing this month, and they look fantastic. One will be up tomorrow or the next day, and I'll blog about it at that time.

NaNoWriMo:

For years I have resisted NaNoWriMo.

I learned of the existence of National Novel Writing Month five years ago, back when I was married. My ex-wife was always an 'aspiring writer' who managed to get 30 - 40 thousand words done in November but barely any during the rest of the year. My path was different in that I wrote 3 - 5 thousand words a month consistently with some spurts up to 15 thousand when I wasn't juggling school and full time employment.

To me it is sad when someone with talent (I admit freely she is a talented writer, and I hope she decides to give writing her full attention someday) only puts in effort during a short span and only because someone told them to. After watching my ex-wife say all year how she really wanted to write for a living but only do any real work during November, I figured NaNoWriMo wasn't really all that helpful. If it worked, wouldn't she be finishing all the novels she started in November?

Of course that's not entirely accurate.

The spirit of the individual counts for much. My ex-wife used NaNoWriMo as a sort of crafts project. Sure, she wanted to be a writer but it was in much the same way I wanted to be a fighter pilot when I was in 3rd grade or the way people would love to win the lottery. It's a dream that probably won't come true, but it makes someone feel like they have something big ahead of them.

This year I began to think about things in a different way. Thousands of people have completed NaNoWriMo including authors I think are amazing. Hugh Howey and Brandon Sanderson come to mind immediately and there are many others. Many of these individuals come back to NaNo every year, even after finding success. If these ultra-successful writers find value in NaNoWriMo, what am I not seeing?

So this year I've decided to join. I'm not sure I will write 50,000 words during the month (that would be far and away a new record for me, my biggest month ever is less than half that) but I know I will learn something by the end of it. Strangely enough, I find myself looking forward to shoehorning a massive amount of work into a month where I really don't have any additional time.

If you want to follow the journey my username is VAAndrews. Feel free to send some encouragement!

Ha! Game Developers Know the Darnedest Things:

I've been a huge fan of The Elder Scrolls games since Morrowind, and probably would have been playing Daggerfall and Arena if I owned a computer at that point. Either way, it's hard not to be blown away by how much Bethesda packs into every one of those games. I always knew there were a bunch of cultural influences, but it never occurred to me to check some of the slang in the game.

For example, Dunmer (or Dark Elves) call the player's character, 'Sera' throughout the game. They will say things like, 'Hail Sera!' as the character wanders through towns. It always seemed like a unique word to the world and helped entrench the player in the epic scope of the game.

This morning, for some reason, I decided to Google the word 'Sera' and discovered a link to the Arabian word Seera. Turns out a 'seera' is an Arabic word that describes a biography (i.e. The Seera of Prophet Mohamed) but can also describe the journey through life. And of course, Morrowind is the story of the player's journey to his destiny. What a perfect way to marry a real life word many would not be familiar with to a concept in the game!

Writers tend to do this on a regular basis. A good example of this (as he is with many other interesting writing techniques) is Robert Jordan. An easy example is Jordan giving the Dark One a real name of Shai'tan, which is similar to Shaitan (or the Devil) in Islam. Jordan drew off real figures and names scores of times through the Wheel of Time, including a very interesting homage to General Robert E. Lee in The Great Captain Gareth Bryne.

Either way, I'm even more impressed with Bethesda than I was before, and wonder what other cultural Easter Eggs they've included in their worldbuilding.

Slow going and Fake Excitement:

Over the past couple weeks, it's been slow going on every project I'm working on. The novel isn't moving like it was a couple weeks ago, fixing the short story is taking far more time than I anticipated, and even exercising seems laborious. Work is dreary and draining. School is somewhat better, but not where I need to be. It's almost all just 'blah'.

Generally, when things like this occur it gets to the point where I start to feel resistance in anything I try to do. Ever try to lift something that shouldn't be that heavy, and yet it is? That's where I am.

My martial arts instructor taught me a trick that works well in times like this: Fake excitement.

My first reaction to this was a small amount of skepticism. Only a small amount. Master Park is an amazing person who was one of the catalysts for a dramatic turnaround in my life. So when he talks I listen, even if I'm not sure I believe what he's saying. When I follow the logic eventually I come to the conclusion he's right.

So how does one fake excitement when they don't feel it? It's as easy as it sounds. Approach a project and and decide to be excited about it. "Woo-hoo, I'm cleaning my house!" "I just can't wait to dig into this huge pile of work!"

It sounds cheesy but it works.

For example, over the weekend my to-do list was enormous. Instead of allowing myself to get overwhelmed, I decided to get excited. Not only did I get everything accomplished, I discovered something very interesting about the main character of my novel. Fake excitement when I ask struggling to make progress gave me a new internal conflict, and it's made me genuinely excited to get back to the keyboard.

Speaking of which, it's time to fake some excitement so I can drag myself to the gym.

The Obligatory Government Shutdown Post:

I feel the need to comment on this, mostly because I'm getting bombarded with messages telling me why one side is wonderful and blameless while the other side wants to kill orphans and kick little old ladies or other such nonsense. Since I'm an American and I have skin in the game, let me pin down how I see it:

First, understand that the various sides to this argument all have some measure of blame. No individual is a saint, let alone any particular group. Everyone contributed to at least some of the issues that lead to the shutdown. Who is at fault? Basically all of our elected officials and the Presidential appointees, both those currently serving and the ones who left during the first term. 

Second, can we agree that the main conservative/liberal parties have irreconcilable differences? I'm sure there is middle ground somewhere but the desire to find it is less than the desire to one up 'the other side' in soundbites. Are we all Americans in the end? At one time I thought so. Now it seems to me that we've devolved into bickering cliques who see no redeeming value in 'the other' who dares to have a different point of view. 

It's also important to note that these guys are all talking a completely different game behind the scenes. Reading books on contemporary politics written from a detached, moderate point of view (yes, there are a few) indicates there is a huge difference between the public persona and the behind closed doors men and women. Sort of like how WWE Superstars are not the same person as the character they portray in the ring. 

The difficulty here is that most ordinary people only listen to the soundbites or read blogs/watch news that portrays their particular ideological slant. The mobs of Rome have no idea what goes on in the Patriarch's home. They only hear rumors and innuendo, along with the flowery speeches in the Capital. 

The million dollar question is: How does this play out in the end? 

In my opinion, the shutdown will have far less impact than what will be reported. (Remember how the sequester cuts were going to destroy the economy? Yeah, not so much.) Will it hurt our credit rating or damage the stock market's run? Maybe. Does that matter? Your guess is as good as mine. 

I see some sort of face saving move in the coming days or weeks. One that would allow both sides to claim some sort of moral victory, but can be easily twisted by pundits on the wings. The President will be the savior who delivered the masses from the grip of the evil Republicans, while the Republicans will show the Despot in Chief and his cronies that the middle class is ready to fight the expanding Federal Government. All of which will be nothing more than theatre and ammo for the upcoming midterm elections. 

And none of which will actually solve a darned thing. 

Browns win and update:

Interesting week to be a Browns fan.

First GM Mike Lombardi trades one of our best players (Trent Richardson, quite possibly our biggest weapon on offense) for a potentially good draft pick but a potentially meh one. Then we hear that Lombardi is probably going to trade one or two of our starting Wide Receivers for a 'significant offer', which means absolutely nothing. And finally we discover a player Lombardi has been drooling over for years (Bryan Hoyer, a guy the rest of the league feels is average on his best day) is named the starting Quarterback.

All the news stories come out that the Browns are tanking the season for a shot at a good Quarterback in the draft. And the fans, myself included, were more than a little irritated. Then the Browns do what nobody expected them to do.

They actually won a game.

It wasn't perfect... in fact, it wasn't pretty. But a win is a win and it was nice to see my guys pull it out in the end.

Between the game, hours at the gym, and a dozen hours of homework, I was way too busy on Sunday/Monday. Even so, I managed to get a bunch of progress done on my two projects and finished reading The Hot Gate by John Ringo. Probably my most productive day in months.

Now to make Tuesday even better!

What I’m up to:

Fall is definitely a busy time of year for me. Between graduate school, my job, and seeing family I am pressed for time pretty much every day. Making time to write is absolutely essential, but I don’t get nearly as much done when I am juggling all my different activities.  The goal is to put in effort every single day. If I do that, I am confident the word count will take care of itself.

Right now I am working on a post-apoc novel and finishing up a short novel. I categorize a short novel as anything over 10,000 words but less than 50,000. This is novella or novelette territory for awards, but I don’t really see any difference between the three terms. Short novel is an easy categorization that perfectly displays what I'm writing, so that’s what I’m going to call it.

In the past I have written quite a few short novels and short stories (10,000 words or less) but little in the 50,000 words plus area. The novel length is something I’d like to explore more of, so I’ll be experimenting a bit with the next few books. It would be awesome to have a few post-apoc novels in a row and I think the world I have created is vast enough for a half dozen or more books. We shall see.

The other thing I am working on is reading more. Some people can blow through novels in a day but honestly I’m not one of them. I get a little OCD about reading and understanding every single word, so I tend to read for pleasure at a very slow pace. It’s easier when I’m reading through current events, work materials, or school books because I’m probably going to read multiple sources and don’t get concerned about things like, say, how the author is structuring their sentences to achieve an effect.

Right now, I’m reading The Hot Gate by John Ringo. I consider this “popcorn reading” because Ringo is one of the few authors I can read through in small chunks spread over time. Read a few paragraphs when I’ve got a couple minutes, go back to the other pressing matter. Small bites of solid entertainment always helps me relax.

As much as I love his books, I can’t do this with an author like Brandon Sanderson. His books are a siren’s call of layered complexity, puzzles, and fun. As awesome as they are, I end up needing to read carefully to try and figure out all the little plots he is weaving together before the big reveal.

Either way, more reading and writing this week. I’ll probably provide you all with an update or two next week. 

NFL Week 2

The first week of the NFL season flew by. The last game was absolutely winnable and the Browns blew it. I’ve been saying that same sentence over and over for the past five years and something tells me I’ll be saying it a lot more this year. The Dolphins offense failed to distance themselves thanks to some impressive defense on the part of the good guys. Of course, their offense was much better than the pitiful effort the Browns put forward (horrific line play on the right side and what happened to T-Rich?) so yeah. As the kids say today, “Epic fail.”

While my Browns had a disappointing first week, they face the sluggish Baltimore Ravens tomorrow. The sluggish Super Bowl Champion Baltimore Ravens, I should say. A team who was embarrassed on opening night, has had an additional 3 days to prepare, is in a bad mood, and is 21-7 against the Cleveland since the Browns were reborn.

This is going to be painful isn’t it?

Poor Reasoning

Group Think is dangerous to any school of thought, and even the most intelligent have difficulty when operating in a bubble of the like minded. It happens everywhere and I think it’s good to pay attention to the phenomenon so that one can avoid it in their daily life.

I found a good example of this on Twitter the other day. Harvard sent out the following tweet:

Study provides strong evidence that female physicians are underpaid compared to their male counterparts http://t.co/KywpgWb7kE
— Harvard University (@Harvard) September 10, 2013

Well doesn’t that sound awful? Speaking for myself (and likely the rest of the human race) I don’t particularly care about the gender of the physician who is working on me. My preference is for a competent and skilled medical practitioner. When the general populace hears something like this-- and when it comes from the nation’s most prestigious institution of learning-- it carries quite a bit of weight.

Trouble is, when one digs into the article we find this bit of information near the end:

“While it is important to study gender differences in earnings after accounting for factors such as specialty choice and practice type, it is equally important to understand overall unadjusted gender differences in earnings. We performed the latter study,” he writes. “This is because specialty and practice choices may be due to not only preferences of female physicians but also unequal opportunities. For example, are unadjusted earnings differences between male and female physicians due to a preference of female physicians for lower-paying specialties [pediatrics or primary care] or do female physicians have less opportunity to enter higher-paying specialties despite having similar preferences as male physicians? The etiology of the persistent gender gap in physician earnings is unknown and merits further consideration.”

Notice how the researcher blocks the real cause-- the choice of female doctors to go into lower paying specialties-- around what they were trying to find: gender bias.

Also notice the researcher does not mention something that takes a big bite out of physician’s earnings: malpractice insurance. This is a big mistake because many physicians pay massive amounts of their income to the insurance companies so they will not lose their practice if they are sued for malpractice. Certain lawsuits tend to be much larger than others. If one makes a mistake that causes a major injury or death to a child, there is likely to be a huge settlement. Since there is much greater risk, the physician is required to pay quite a bit more in malpractice insurance, which lowers take home pay. (Without going onto a tangent, this is a massive reason why healthcare is so expensive and if we had tort reform in Obamacare we might be seeing better care for less cost today, instead of things going in the opposite direction.)

Given that women tend to enjoy going into pediatrics or OB/GYN, two specialties where malpractice lawsuits can easily reach seven figure settlements, we have found a big part of the answer as to why women doctors tend to make less than men.

I also wonder if part of the rest of the pay gap comes from men simply deciding to charge higher rates. Some people are better at negotiating than others and it’s possible that men as a gender are more willing to gamble on negotiating higher rates than females. This is not something I have any evidence of, but it’s something I would like to see the study address. People who ask for more tend to get a little more, and even if they don’t get much it still sets the stage for future increases. An extra $5000 a year is not so much to someone making $250,000, but when one gets used to negotiation over time that difference can add up.

Still, the primary bias in the medical field is not gender based but based on selection. When someone goes out with a certain end result in mind, it becomes too easy to end up at that result. If we have studies that fail to address alternate reasoning with anything more than a dismissive hand wave it is not beneficial to the women the group is trying to assist.

NFL Kickoff

I’m a huge Cleveland Browns fan and have been since I was about 6 years old. Unfortunately for me, the Browns have had no success at all the past couple decades. And by none I mean, as close to zero as possible. Yet I still approach every year as most Browns fans do; with stupid amounts of hope that this year might be the year.

You know, the year the team actually has a winning record.

This year features a new coaching staff, new ownership, and new philosophy in gameplanning. However, all the experts are expecting one thing to remain the same: the Browns will lose more games than they win.

Probably. Okay, it’s likely.

I hate to admit the truth about the team but it’s okay, I’ll still be watching the game every Sunday.  We’ve still got Joe Thomas, T-Rich, and Joe Haden. And while I know the chances are good I’ll spend more days in a funk due to a loss than I will in ecstasy due to a win, at least I will enjoy watching my team play every week.

Football is about fun, after all. And if it stops being fun I’ll stop watching it.

The Hugos and Being Happy for Others

The Hugo awards came out a few days ago, and some of the winners are debatable in quality. Awards are always debatable, which is part of the fun. Did Patrick Nielsen Hayden really have a better year editing than Toni Weisskopf? Did Redshirts really represent the best novel of the year? Was Blackwater really better than the Dr. Who episodes? These are fun things to debate with friends.


Part of the trouble with the SF/F fandom is how passionate we are. Oh, it’s certainly a blessing to those of us who create things for others to enjoy, but as a whole we can get a little too passionate at times. Pick a series and we all know one person or another who lives and dies by the machinations of that universe. Consider how major conventions look to outsiders. There’s a reason why the general population considered Trekkies somewhat loony for a couple decades.


Our fandom is also technically savvy and enjoys posting our strong feelings for SF/F where others can easily view and comment. Text does not convey tone as well as personal conversation between friends, so it can often come to pass that preference in public leads to debate, and debate leads to angry argument. Some people are also just jerks, but let’s discount them for a minute.


We are going to argue among ourselves for our favorites. We’ll also argue against certain individuals/series that we feel have jumped the shark—or that we feel were never very good to begin with. You’ll disagree with me and while I think you are incorrect, we can debate it and enjoy ourselves while perhaps understanding a bit more about the other person we are conversing with. Their favorite series speaks to them for a reason, after all.


The point here is that while I do not agree with who won all the awards, I’m happy for all the award winners, including the people I felt did not deserve a win in their category. They achieved recognition from the fandom, and are quite pleased with themselves. Rightfully so.


Part of having a happy life involves learning how to enjoy things that might not be immediately pleasurable. I sometimes wonder if the vitriol against award winners is being inflamed by the “participation trophy” culture so many of us grew up in. When our favorite things lose an award, or our least favorite people win, our passion in the SF/F fandom can make it feel personal. If we have a generation of egos established on a foundation of never suffering defeat, it’s difficult for these people to deal with the ramifications of the real world where one will be a loser from time to time. It is possible to have enjoyment in defeat. George RR Martin did this by creating the Hugo Losers Party at WorldCon many years ago, and it is a wonderful tradition.


So the next time you feel that flash of anger because an award somehow missed the genius of your favorite thing or rewarded an individual you feel is a degenerate, try refocusing your attention on spending a few minutes being happy for the award winner. I’ve found that to be the best way to avoid soul crushing negativity. Life is too short to be angry about annual awards. Someone better might just win next year.

Official Launch

Greetings and welcome to my official website! You will find updates on all my projects, both in progress and published. Feel free to reach out to me with any feedback you may have.