WritingMadeHard

November has come and gone!

2011-12-21T15:16:00.000-08:00

Well, November has come and gone without Dark Moon being published, my co-writer, Beverley Bateman was skeptical that it would be printed in November in spite of the publisher's encouragement. Perhaps it will be published this month, but it is not on the schedule yet. My fingers are crossed that it will be published soon. Steve

Latest Winner!

2011-12-01T09:20:00.000-08:00

The Latest winner of my book giveway is Jeff Spaulding of Arizona. He put his name in the hat for a paper copy of one of my book, Dreams of April Ten. You could be the next winner. Just ask, it costs you nothing, even the shipping is free. The email addy to submit to is : stevelafevers@yahoo.com. Nothing to it. Steve

Christmas Time

2011-12-01T08:50:00.000-08:00

Well, it is nearly Christmas time and I have yet to blog regularly even though that was my intent. I think the hardests thing for writers to do is to actually write. I still haven't finished my new book either, and it should have been done a year or so ago. It is a non-fiction work on paranormal hypnosis. I hope it does well. A lot of people are getting ebook readers so maybe that will translate into new sales. Also, my latest work, Dark Moon, from Mundania Press is still not out yet, although I keep hearing promisess it was written with Canadian writer Beverley Batemann before Katrina struck New Orleans and much of the story takes place in that city. My wife wants me to eat lunch so I guess I'll go for now. Remember to submit your name and address to my book give-away. Just let me know whether you want an ebook or paper book and you could win one. Send me an email saying what you want and I'll pick a name out of the hat and giveaway a book each month. Steve

Win a free autographed Book

2011-10-02T17:36:00.000-07:00

I have communicated with the publisher and have been told that Dark Moon will be released as soon as possible, probably November. Now that I have a date, I can start my contest IF YOU would like to win a free autographed copy of Dark Moon or one of my other books simply send an email to: stevelafevers@yahoo.com let me know your name and address where the book can be sent and I'll select a winner and send an autographed copy to that address. It's that simple. Just email me. If the response is good, I'll give away a book a month. Steve

release date changed to September

2011-08-02T09:35:00.000-07:00

I received word from Mundania Publishing that the release date for Dark Moon has been changed from July to September. BUT you can still get The Last Guardian from Mundania.com either as an ebook or a paper book. Also available at Amazon.com. Or you can get an autographed hard copy by emailing me at stevelafevers@yahoo.com. Happy reading. Steve

Here's Another excerpt from Dark Moon

2011-01-20T20:56:00.000-08:00

Carved over a period of 12,000 years by wind, ice and water, the Niagara Gorge collects waters from the upper Great Lakes Basin. The waters flow into the Niagara River, rushing at 40 miles per hour toward the 1100-foot wide crest line of Niagara Falls. The governments of Canada and New York State divert 112,000 gallons per second to their electrical generating plants. The remaining 100,000 gallons per second hit the precipice at full force and crash to the rocks 182 feet below in a deafening thunder that drowns out all other sound. Luna Island, a small strip of rock, interrupts the water of Bridal Veil Falls at the southern most point. The small section that remains is known as Luna Falls.
Alan Strange sat on the front steps of his log cabin on the Canadian side some distance from the falls. He slowly turned the pages of an old photo album. A hundred and fifty years ago, when his father built the cabin, Luna Falls had been visible from the front porch. But massive hotels and other structures had long since obstructed that view. Now, the trees and brush that Strange had allowed to sprout up in the yard limited his view to the immediate surroundings. Even so, he could hear the falls rumbling endlessly in the distance, and he found that far away rumble comforting, somehow.
The face of a young woman standing next to an oxcart looked up at him from the photo album. The picture was yellowed and frayed at the edges, the image nearly worn off by constant touching. Had it really been that long since they’d walked together in the streets of Budapest? It hardly seemed any time at all. He had loved her so much. He still missed her, after nearly a century. How could he have murdered her like that? He loved her more than life itself, yet he had torn her literally limb from limb. He didn’t remember it, of course. He didn’t remember killing anyone. Still, everyone he’d ever loved…everyone he’d ever known…was gone. He couldn’t remember killing any of them, but he relived the murders every night in his dreams. He relived the madness, the savagery, and the rage. Every morning he would awaken with no memory of the acts, and only a vague awareness of the dreams, but knowing that he was responsible for all of those deaths.
Finally, he had moved here to the wilderness. Well, it had been wilderness then. The move had allowed him to be away from people. Perhaps if he didn’t know anyone, he wouldn’t kill anyone. But it hadn’t worked out that way. Eventually he had devised a way to lock himself into a windowless cubicle with a timer that would allow him to exit only when the sun was shining. He wasn’t a danger during the day. Only at night and only when the moon was full. He was a true lunatic—that’s what he was: a person driven mad by the full moon. But in his heart he knew the truth. He knew exactly what he was. The old woman in Hungary had warned him, but he’d ignored her. He was a scientist. There was no supernatural. What a fool he had been.
Strange gently closed the old album and carried it into the house where he wrapped it in a cloth and closed it up in a dresser drawer. Some of these pictures were over a hundred years old. They had to be protected. He looked up at himself in the mirror above the dresser. He looked just like he had the night Myra disappeared. He hadn’t changed in all these years. His hair was still black, his skin supple, and his tan face lineless. He had gone to Budapest to research longevity. He had been working at one of those clinics where they gave rich women injections of lamb cells. Such clinics were all the rage back then, but it was a joke. He had found nothing useful there. Then he met the old woman. He had given her his life’s savings to take him to a man she told him of—a man who did not age. Yes, he had found the secret of prolonging youth, all right. And he had spent the rest of his life trying to find an antidote. Now it looked like he had finally succeeded. Not a cure, but a treatment that taken regularly would stave off those awful side effects. Just as the old woman had told him, the secret was in the little yellow flower that grew on the mountainsides near her village.
“But why are you so concerned with youth?” She had asked. “There are worse things than growing old, worse things even than death.”
But to him, there had been nothing worse than growing old and dying. He had been raised by his grandfather and as a teenager, he had watched that gentle, wonderful man shrivel up and die before his eyes. It had left him determined not to suffer the same fate. Or at least he would learn to put it off as long as possible. How foolish he had been.
Now, it was beginning to get dark. The moon, a full moon, was rising. He could feel the moonlight burning his skin, and he could feel the old rage beginning to well up within him. It was time. He fought to remain calm and exited the log cabin onto the front porch. The greenhouse was behind the cabin, but the cabin had only one door. It was only a few steps around back to the greenhouse, but it seemed like miles. The moonlight distracted him and he almost forgot his mission, but he was determined and for the moment he was able to ignore the symptoms brought on by that awful light. Then he saw the door standing awkwardly open and the anger mounted within him. Damn raccoon, he thought. He had seen one of the animals nosing around the greenhouse earlier in the day, but had thought nothing of it at the time.
Strange ran to the greenhouse and threw open the door that was hanging by one hinge. The place was a wreck! That raccoon, or something, had gotten in and smashed the cases and upturned the racks of plants. The little refrigerator in the back corner was on its side. Broken vials were scattered across the floor. He rummaged quickly through them looking for an unbroken container, but found none. It was all ruined! And it would take months to grow enough of the yellow flowers to produce more of the treatment! He must lock himself in the escape-proof cubicle, quickly!
He started across the overgrown yard toward the partially underground six-by-six log cubicle that until recently he’d been forced to lock himself into every 28 days. After a few steps, he stopped. It wasn’t a raccoon that had done this to him, he thought, his mind yielding to the lunar madness. It was that woman who worked in the convenience store! No one else even knew he existed. It had to be that bitch! She must have followed him home through the woods and ransacked the greenhouse while he was…He’d get her for this.
Strange turned away from the cubicle and headed into the darkening woods, his ability to reason overcome by a savage rage. He ran awkwardly, feeling, sensing, smelling his way as the light faded almost to blackness. His feet hurt. His damn shoes were too tight! He kicked them off and continued on more lithely, the light of the rising moon cast long, ominous shadows ahead of him. He bent low to pass under a tree branch, then stayed in that feral posture using his hands and arms to sweep brush and briars out of his way.
Abruptly, he stopped and cocked his head to one side. He was absolutely quiet for a few seconds. He didn’t even breathe. There it was again—the sound of people talking. He dropped down until his hands were on the ground and peered through the brush at the young couple who walked toward him along an old trail. They were holding hands and laughing about being lost. Perhaps it was they who had ransacked his greenhouse? No. It was that woman from the grocery store. He would take care of her! But first, he must see that these two did not stumble across his home. They had no business in these woods, his woods. They deserved what they were going to get.
Strange bounded over the low brush between them, and pounced, growling like an animal. The male grabbed him by an arm, throwing him into a bramble patch. He was strong, that one. Strange no more than hit the ground than he was on the attack once again, biting, scratching, and tearing at the soft flesh of his opponent.
“Run, Zen!” The male shouted, “Get away, quick!”
“No, I…”
“Go! Now!”
Strange tore at his back with talon-like nails, while sinking his teeth deep into the male’s neck. He jerked his head several times, tearing out a piece of flesh the size of a child’s hand. Blood streamed from the wound and ran down the male’s chest.
The female looked around for a weapon, but there was nothing useful at hand. Finally, in desperation, she picked up a dried branch that had fallen from a tree. It was full of wood-rot and termites, and when she struck Strange with it, it shattered into dust. She cursed and cried, looking for anything she could use to defend her mate, but found nothing.
“I’ll get help!” She shouted, and ran back the way they’d come.
The male kicked Strange in the gut, knocking the wind from him. In the darkness and shadows of the woods it was hard to see and the shadows made everything surreal. Strange knew the male couldn’t really tell what had attacked him and that was an advantage for Strange. He redoubled his efforts, raking the man’s body with his nails and biting out pieces of flesh. Most of the man’s clothing had been torn off or shredded and his skin was slick with blood making it difficult for Strange to get a good hold on him. Strange howled, the man cursed, and the brawl continued.
Suddenly, the man had a broken tree branch in his hands. He swung it like a baseball bat, cracking it against his attacker’s skull. Strange fell to the ground, momentarily stunned. Then he was up and attacking with such force the male was knocked onto his back. Strange pounced on top of him, sank his teeth into the male’s soft belly. He jerked his head away, rending a gash in the male’s belly. He dug his nails into the open wound digging, widening and deepening the bloody opening.
The male rolled over pinning Strange beneath him. He stabbed at him again and again with the broken tree limb. It came away bloody. The man kept pounding away with the broken limb, but he was getting weaker. He had lost a lot of blood and continued to bleed from his neck and belly wounds. Finally the man collapsed. Strange slunk away, whimpering, into the woods. He was bloody and injured, but he still had to find that bitch from the grocery store.

New Excerpt from Dark Moon

2010-11-10T19:46:00.001-08:00

Phil could see the reflection of the full moon and the lights from the boat rippling on the water below like a mirror in a funhouse.
Damn that witch! It was all her fault. If it weren’t for Zena, he would have injected Strange’s formula on time. If it weren’t for her, he’d never have gone to Niagara Falls in the first place. Hell, he wouldn’t even be on the bloody boat!
Boat? He was still on the boat? He had to get off! Frantically he searched for a lifeboat, a vest, anything. He would jump and swim if necessary.
The boat’s whistle blew. Phil put his hands over his ears and dropped to his knees. It was an awful sound, shrill and loud—painfully loud. He’d never heard anything so loud in his life. When it was over, he was disoriented, dazed. Standing, he staggered aimlessly about the deck for a moment trying to regain his bearings. His ears were still ringing from the noise. He was supposed to be doing something, something important. What was it?
He shook his head, trying to clear out the fog. The moon continued its slow rise above the river as he turned back to the railing. Holding onto the rail he leaned over the side looking down at the muddy water. What was he supposed to be doing?
It seemed he couldn’t do much of anything any more. He was so easily distracted, unable to focus and his memory … his skin stung from the moonlight and itched something terrible; his feet hurt, and his jaws ached. Phil tried to fight the effects of the moon on his body, but it was so hard to think.
Get away. That’s it. Yes, he had to get away before he did something…something to Zena…That bitch! She and her whore friend were probably screwing those two cops. Yes, they were! He had seen it in her eyes earlier when he was in her cabin.
“Whore!” he growled, quietly. Holy Christ, even his teeth hurt! And damn these tight shoes! He couldn’t do anything about his teeth, but by God he could do something about his shoes! Kicking off the offending foot ware he trotted away toward his wife’s cabin. His feet slipped on the wooden deck and he almost fell. Stopping, he pulled off his stockings. That was better. In seconds, he reached the cabin, lunging at the door.
His body impacted the cabin door at full speed, knocking it from its hinges and he burst into the room in a full-blown rage. Pouncing on the bed he tore at the sheets, but no one was there. The bathroom was empty too. Darting into the adjoining room, he could tell without even looking that no one was there. The whole suite smelled empty.
Phil left the room and scrambled up the stairs, following the scent of the two women. His pain and discomfort were forgotten as his mind gave in to the rage. Then he saw them.
The two women were about to enter the dining room.
What little reason he had held onto vanished. They’re going in and those cops were there—waiting for them!
Barreling headlong down the deck, he uttered an ear-piercing howl as he charged into the two women, knocking them sprawling across the deck.
“Oh my God, Zena! Run!” Natalie crawled toward the dining room door.
Phil ignored her, focusing only on Zena, chasing after her.
Zena scrambled clumsily for the stairs.
In a moment, he was on her, grasping at her legs with clawed fingers. Her flesh tore and rivulets of blood poured down her limbs as his nails dug into her ankles. She kicked savagely, attempting to dislodge him, but he held on.
“Bitch!” he growled.
“Phil? Phil, darling, is that you?” Zena cried, fighting to get away. “Phil, darling, it’s me, Zena. Oh, God, Phil—stop. Please stop. Think of the baby!”
Phil relaxed his grip and looked deeply into her eyes, saliva dripping from his chin. He saw the tiny scar that ran through her right eyebrow where she’d cut herself, falling on a bucket as a child. It always flared red when she was excited. It was very red now.
Standing motionless for the briefest period of time he thought how he loved this woman more than life itself. She was bleeding. She was carrying his child and she was bleeding. He should help her—do something before…
Zena took advantage of his hesitation, pulling free and scrambling to the top of the stairs, her feet and legs dripping blood. She attempted to move quickly, frantic to put some distance between them, heading for the door.
Phil chased up the stairs after her and in another moment he was on top of his frantically thrashing wife.
“Phil,” she shouted. “Think what you’re doing! Please.” Using her hands, she tried to protect her baby but it was useless. She tried to calm Phil by talking to him. But the time for reason was passed.
Phil ripped at the one he loved most, shredding her chest, her face, whatever he could reach. Pieces of her summer dress came away in his claws. Kicking, scratching, cursing, growling, they tumbled back down to the deck, her blood and tissues spattering the staircase.
“Nat! Someone!” Zena sobbed as she fought to get away on her hands and knees. “Help me. Oh, please help me! Oh please God, help my baby.”
Phil roared like a beast, pouncing onto her back, raking her body with sharp claws, and gnawing off pieces of her flesh with his teeth.
Covered in blood, she almost managed to slither from his grasp as claws ripped at her legs from hip to ankle, but she wasn’t strong enough. Her strength ebbed away with the blood that flowed from her body. One last effort resulted in her slipping out of his grasp. She tried to kick him in the face with a bloody foot as she dragged herself across the deck, but Phil was too fast for her. Pouncing like the beast he’d become, Phil landed on her shoulders driving her body to the slippery deck up against the side rail of the sternwheeler.
Zena screamed as he bit into her shoulder, tearing away a huge piece of flesh. His powerful claws flipped her over onto her back like a rag doll.
Natalie made it up to the next deck, holding a deckchair over her head. Swinging the chair at Phil with all her strength she hit him hard on his back. “You leave her alone!”
The impact drove Phil to the deck. Natalie threw the chair on top of him. “Somebody help us!” She screamed as she took Zena by her bloody hand and tried to help her to her feet, but Zena could not stand. She was too weak, lying in a huge pool of her own blood that sloshed back and forth across the deck as the boat rocked.
“You bastard!” Natalie kicked at Phil, as he lay on the deck beneath the chair momentarily stunned. Letting go of Zena, she picked up the chair and struck Phil with it again and again, but her actions had little impact. Soon, Phil reoriented himself. He grabbed the chair, jerked it from Natalie’s grasp and threw it over the side of the boat.
Natalie scurried across to Zena, cradling her close to her chest. “It’s all right darling. It’s going to be all right. Help! Please someone help this woman," she screamed.
Still a little shaky, Phil climbed to his feet and stood holding onto the railing to steady himself. The moon was fully risen now and he took a moment to bask in its light. The light gave him strength, and he gloried in it. His skin no longer itched, his jaws and feet no longer ached. Phil felt alive. He almost felt that he was life. Standing facing the moon, he found it wonderful. His countenance glowed with the light and a smile crossed his face. Facing the moon’s fullness, in a moment of near ecstasy, a strange sound escaped his lips. It was very much like the howl of a dog.
People had gathered at the entrance to the dining room to see what the racket was on the deck. Some had moved toward the stairs. Phil saw them and growled fiercely, shaking his shaggy head and waving his arms in the air. The passengers shuffled backwards, eyes and mouths wide open.
A chunky woman in a bright flowered dress stood near the door of the dining area, poised to rush back inside. She held a little preschooler by the hand.
“Look, Mommy,” the boy said, pointing at Phil and jumping up and down. “It’s the statue from the Zoo! It’s the statue come alive.”
“Someone get the Captain!” his mother yelled.
People stood clumped together in the doorway, not really able to see well with the light at their backs, but fearful of all the commotion. They wanted to see what was going on without getting involved.
Those few who were closer to the action watched in horror. They made no attempt to assist.
“We’ve got to get away from here,” Natalie told her friend.
Phil heard her and turned from the crowd to renew his attack on the one he loved most. Shoving Natalie off to one side he ripped at Zena's body with his claws, chewing on any part of her he could get into his slobbering mouth.
Natalie dropped Zena’s hand and ran along the deck. “Help! Somebody please help. He’s killing her!”
“No, oh, no,” Zena cried as the monster lunged for her throat. “Think of our baby!” Fading fast, she attempted to protect the baby by holding her hand and arm between Phil and her belly. Her wrist went into the monster’s dripping maw. “I love you so much. Oh, darling, I beg you. Don’t do this.”

Back from Texas

2010-10-29T20:16:00.000-07:00

I'm home from Texas, will be going there again in a few weeks. Really enjoyed the Lone Star State. I like it there. Stay tuned here for another excerpt soon. Steve

Dark Moon Sample

2010-09-14T18:35:00.000-07:00

Below is a sample from Dark Moon, available soon from Mundanis Press.

It was 12 below zero outside on the Fahrenheit side of the thermometer. Phil didn’t bother checking the other side. As a doctor, he was familiar with all that metric nonsense the Canadians used. He knew that normal body temperature was 37 degrees Celsius; he understood cubic centimeters, liters, milliliters, and numerous other measurements, but as an American, he related better to Fahrenheit. Anyway, it was damned cold, and that was what counted.
At least a foot of snow had piled up against the cabin during the night, but it had melted off the roof of the greenhouse and the plants were cozy with their kerosene heat, music, grow lights and what little sunlight there was these days. Another man might have been frustrated, but Phil had waited, knowing that eventually he would have enough of the flowers to produce the treatment. That time had come. He had tested it on the last full moon and it had worked exactly as predicted in Strange’s journal. Now he had enough for the next lunar cycle and even enough of the plants growing to produce a dose each month with an occasional extra dose to keep for emergencies.
It was time to go get his wife. He just couldn’t wait any longer. He had packed the few belongings he needed into the pickup last night and had rigged up an automatic watering and feeding system for the plants. He had connected two 55-gallon drums of kerosene to the heater in the greenhouse and had done the same with fuel for the generator. The greenhouse should be self-sustaining for several weeks, plenty of time for him to drive to New Orleans, pickup Zena and return.
She would be surprised to see him. He had been afraid to send any more emails for fear the police would somehow monitor them. Certainly he was not dumb enough to name a time and place for them to find him. The police would be sure to have the house on Chartres Street under surveillance, so he couldn’t go there. A past email of Zena’s had mentioned that Nat was coming for a visit they were going to take a trip on the riverboat. He would catch up with Zena there.
Gathering up Strange’s notebooks, he put them into the old trunk he’d found in the closet. They should be dry and safe there until his return. Then he thought better of it and thumbed through them until he found the last one. He carried it to the front of the house where he sat at the little table by the window and opened the notebook to the last entry made by Strange.
“September 12.” Phil had read the entry so many times that he knew it by heart. There was nothing exciting there, just a few lines describing the condition of the plants. The raccoon had decimated his greenhouse early in the summer, but he had made repairs and the plants were abundant again after being replanted. They were growing nicely. Strange was satisfied that he would soon be able to produce enough of the serum for both himself and the person he had infected in June. He expected that person to contact him soon.
Phil withdrew a ballpoint pen from his shirt pocket and began to write in the blank pages after Strange’s final notation:
“February 19: I am the person infected by Alan Strange last summer. When I arrived here a few months ago, I found the place in a shambles. The greenhouse had been burned to the ground and there was a charred body in the ruins. The body was headless. Since Strange has not shown up, I assumed the body to be his. I found the head but it was burned beyond recognition. I performed the best post mortem I could and found that Strange had been murdered; perhaps ‘executed’ is a better word. If you have read the preceding volumes of this journal, it will be hard to believe that Strange is actually dead. And if you are infected with the virus like I am, you will need to know how he was killed. You may have to protect yourself against it someday. It seems he was beheaded and then the body was burned. I believe he could have survived the fire alone, but not the beheading. I buried the remains and rebuilt the greenhouse as described elsewhere in this journal. If you are reading this, you are probably infected with the longevity virus. Be assured that these volumes do contain everything you need to know in order to produce a treatment that completely counteracts the adverse affects of the virus. As long as you faithfully inject at least three cc’s of this preparation into your bloodstream no more than 30 minutes before the full moon rises, you will be safe from the rages that cause you to harm others. The timing is critical. Once in the body, the preparation is activated by the rays of the full moon. If it is injected more than 30 minutes prior to being activated by those rays, the preparation will be broken down by bodily processes and excreted before it has time to be activated. In other words, if you inject it too soon, it will not work and, of course, if you wait too long, you will be overcome by rage and unable to inject yourself.
“I am leaving today to reunite with my wife and bring her back here with me. I will then produce enough of the preparation to last several months. Once I have a ready supply, I will seek out a genetics laboratory where I can work to modify the virus and eliminate its side effects all together. Then I will no longer have to use the preparation and it will be safe to pass on the virus to others whom I wish to live by my side. Endless longevity is a lonely existence when you are the only one who has it. Anyway, I believe the greenhouse will be able to carry on without me until my return. I should be gone only a few weeks, but should something happen to the greenhouse while I am gone I have placed a leather pouch filled with wolfsbane seeds in the trunk with these journals. That way, I will be able to plant a new crop if need be. Should I not return and you stumble across these journals, you also will be able to produce the preparation. It is not difficult, but it is time consuming. There is an underground cell behind the house where you can safely stay during the full moon. I tell you from experience that it will hold you no matter how madly you try to escape. But do not fear, the door will open automatically so that you can leave when the sun rises.
“There is nothing more that I can do for you. Alan Strange has already written all you need to know. I hope that I return as planned, find the plants flourishing, and do not require the seeds I have placed here. I hope that I am the last person who will ever need to read these journals. Philo Jones, MD”
Phil closed the notebook and put it back in the trunk with the others. He took one last look around. He assured himself that the doors to the cabin, cellar, and greenhouse were secured. Finally, he walked to the old Ford truck, opened the fertilizer box into which he had packed his belongings and made sure the vial of antiviral preparation was there and not leaking. He taped the box shut again with duct tape, climbed into the cab, closed the door and turned the starter. The old truck came instantly to life, running noiselessly. He stepped on the clutch pedal, eased it into first gear and headed for the border.
Security measures had been stiffened since the last terrorist attack, but the borders still leaked like a sieve. According to his new Canadian driving license, he was now Alan Strange. Since the pickup was registered to Strange, Phil believed taking Strange’s identity would be a good cover. After all, the authorities were looking for Dr. Jones back in the States, not Alan Strange. He had trimmed the bleached hair from his face and head, and looked just like the picture on his new ID. He doubted the border guards would give him a second thought. And he was right. In less than an hour he had crossed over into New York State and was headed south. However, as he passed through the border checkpoint, he looked up at the cameras that had been installed on the American side. His image was captured by the cameras and fed to the facial recognition computers.

Half-naked Princess Rescued by Idiot! Excerpt from Last Guardian

2010-07-30T19:17:00.000-07:00

From the book: The Last Guardian, published by Mundania Press and available from their website, Amazon.com, and other sources of good books.
In the Palace Darkhold, one of the slaves continued to fan Princess Lyssa while the other dried her magnificent blue body with a soft towel. There wasn’t much that surprised the two anymore. They were even getting used to seeing the Princess parading around literally half-naked. But when a skinny little runt in a metallic jump suit stepped out of the air beside the pool, said “I’m here to save you,” and fell into the fountain, it got their attention.
Sunny splashed about in the chest-deep, scented foam, coughing and gasping until the slaves jumped in and dragged him out. When he was able to breathe again, one of them spoke and the token translated. “You’re going to save us?”
“Gods of Pelu,” the other laughed. “He can’t even save himself!”
Sunny coughed some more, then explained that he had really come for the Princess, but since they were there, he would take the slaves as well.
“Who are you?” Lyssa asked, letting her skincloth reattach itself to her right half. “You look familiar.”
“We’ve no time to talk now,” he said. “The Gate is still open, but will soon drift away. We must go now or not at all.”
Startled by the sound of approaching feet in the adjoining room, Sunny dropped the token as he crossed in front of the doorway. He bent to retrieve it just as a guard stormed through the curtains. The devilman stumbled over Sunny, lost his balance and staggered across the room into the two frantic slaves. All three of them tumbled into the pool. Sunny picked up the token, rudely grabbed the Princess by her forbidden hand and dashed for the open Gate.
“I’ll come back for you,” he called to the slaves as he and a very angry blue Princess vanished.

Another Excerpt from The Last Guardian

2010-07-30T00:59:00.000-07:00

The following short exceerpt is from The Last Guardian, available now from the publisher at www.mundania.com from my website at www.stephenlafevers.wcpauthor.com and from Amazon.com and many other places on the web and in bookstores.

The long nights and short autumn days in Fairbanks were giving way to the terrible ice fogs and arctic temperatures of winter. Many residents try to squeeze a final outdoor fling into their schedule that time of year because they’ll soon be forced indoors by the weather.
The city’s population had doubled due to the pipeline construction. “Outsiders” streamed in, hoping for fast bucks and high times. It was almost too much for the permanent residents. Most of them lived there because they disliked the crime and crush of urban America. Now it had followed them literally to the end of the earth.
Even Fairbanks University student Jane Potter had felt the pressure that September weekend and was determined to get as far away from people as she reasonably could. In her father’s plane, Jane flew a few hundred miles east to a place on the banks of the Yukon River called Eagle City. It was just what she needed.
Ninety years ago, Eagle City had been a thriving metropolis of 35,000 souls, living, dying, working, cheating, riding the boom of Klondike gold. There had been casinos, banks, bordellos, a cavalry post, even an immigration office to deal with Canadians coming to search for the yellow metal.
All that was gone now, except for the old immigration office, and the hundred or so folks who call the place home. Jane sat on an abandoned pile of wood that had been cut and neatly stacked nearly a century before. She gazed at the ruins of a once-lively cavalry post. A memorial at the stables proclaimed: “Half their horses died the first winter.”
Turning east, she saw row upon row of firewood stacked beside the pipe that had carried water to the fort. Along the way, the pipe passed through a series of small buildings. Each building contained a stove where wood fires kept the water from freezing before it got to the next building and so on until it reached the fort. The fort was in ruins, but the pipeline and wood remained nearly unchanged.
Jane got up and walked among the ghosts of men and times long gone, knowing that, like Eagle City, Fairbanks would not always be teeming with society’s greedy rejects. She wondered if someday only the oil pipeline and its pump stations would remain to show what had once been there.
It would soon be dark, she thought and zipped up her parka against the chill. She would have to leave soon if she were going to stop at Chicken on the way home. She had never been to Chicken, but had heard the story of the original settlers who wanted to name the place after the local birds, but couldn’t spell Ptarmigan. “Hell,” someone said. “Let’s just call it Chicken.”
Her spirits lifted, Jane turned and walked briskly toward the airfield that had once been a parade ground. It was only a few hundred feet to her father’s Supercub, but before she reached the aircraft, she quietly dissolved away.

Back in the saddle ,again

2010-06-14T20:05:00.000-07:00

For those of you who don't remember Gene Autry, his signature song was "Back in the Saddle." I'm back to working on my books back to going to writing group meetings, and back to blogging. My daughter has moved from New Orleans to Dallas and I'm working on a book that takes place in New Orleans. Also for those who don't remember Gene was the first person to record Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, he was a famous cowboy movie star, radio personality, singer and the first star to make a movie serial.

Below is an excerpt from my current release, The Last Guardian available now from the publisher at www.Mundania.com and from Amazon and B&N.com and elsewhere.

Pooser rattled the old bones and dragon’s teeth in his skin pouch and cast them out onto the fine, gray sand. There was something in the air tonight besides the sulfurous fumes of the acid seas. He might not be much of a sorcerer, but he could read the signs as well as the next man. Change was in the wind.
A break in the roiling black clouds allowed the light from two of Charon’s four moons to filter down dimly through the wavering fumes, illuminating Pooser’s cast like a spotlight. Another omen, he thought, wiping tears from his eyes to get a better look at the harbingers. The bones had scattered about encouragingly, but the teeth were clumped together in an ominous pattern. Thrice he’d cast the harbingers and thrice they’d aligned themselves in a manner suggesting both hope and dread. Exactly what was about to happen, the harbingers would not reveal. But it was something important, of that Pooser was certain.
He stared at the dragon’s teeth, thinking. If only he were older, more experienced, he would be better prepared to recognize the event when it came and turn it to his advantage. The lay of the bones clearly indicated a prize of immense value, but the teeth foretold calamity for the seeker of the prize and perhaps for the entire planet as well. It could go either way. Make the right choices, take the appropriate steps and bounty beyond imagining could be his; guess wrong and he, a mere lad of eleven years, could doom his world.
A hundred yards inland, coal fires flickered in the street lamps, revelers romped in the alleys, and laughter filled the foul air. A little nearer, where the dirt streets turned to sand, derelicts and drifters, sleeping uneasily in culverts, ditches, and under wooden sidewalks, kicked and coughed the caustic fog from their burning lungs.
Down on the beach, a slimy black sea lapped hungrily at the sand, its acrid fumes swirling through twin shafts of moonlight. Like two spotlights, the shafts converged on a small, emaciated boy dressed in drab rags and sitting on his knees in the patch of light that created multiple shadows like a three-dimensional movie viewed without glasses.
The boy picked a small bone from the beach, meticulously brushed each clinging grain of sand from its surface, then dropped it into his pouch and reached for another. Suddenly, a bare foot stabbed into the circle of light. It covered the bones. In the moonlight the foot almost looked blue.
“Who are you?” a female voice demanded. “What place is this?”
“I am Pooser,” the boy said, slapping his hand at the foot, “Sorcerer Supreme of all Charon. If you don’t remove your foot from my harbingers, I’ll turn you into a fish!”
“What a pitiful little city,” the woman said. She tramped the ancient bones deep into the sand as she strode away. “No wonder I’ve never heard of it.”
Pooser quickly dug out a bone. Carefully, he brushed away the sand and examined it for damage. It was unbroken, thank the gods. These harbingers had been handed down from sorcerer to apprentice for hundreds of generations and were irreplaceable. If she had broken it he’d… Well, he’d wish there had been time to learn more from his father before he’d gone away with the Warlord’s troops. If only the Sorcerer had resisted, Pooser thought, they could never have forced him to go. But he had not. Now Pooser was alone, a sorcerer’s son with just a smattering of instruction, and three or four ill-practiced spells under his belt. He was on his own with only his bravado and a bag of tricks to keep him going. He’d cast the harbingers daily hoping they would foretell the return of his father, but he was too subjective to be any good at it. At first he let wishful thinking creep in and saw his father’s homecoming in every cast. Finally he’d given up hope. Since then he’d seen nothing but bones and teeth in the casts…until today.
He put the remaining harbingers into the pouch where his father had kept them and packed the pouch into the bag where he kept everything else. It was getting late and Pooser had yet to find sanctuary for the night. The youth stood, slung his seemingly- empty bag over a shoulder and started walking toward the city. Abruptly, he stopped. His body shuddered as he felt a sudden chill, and a momentary uneasiness came over him. Involuntarily, he placed his free hand at the back of his neck where the hairs were beginning to bristle.
“Little boy,” called a female voice. “Oh, little boy!”
Pooser turned and saw a strangely garbed woman standing in the circles of moonlight where he had been only moments before. He stood as tall as he could saying, “I am Pooser, Sorcerer Supreme of all Charon. Demean me at great risk!”
“I’m sorry,” the woman said, approaching the boy. “I meant no disrespect. I wonder if you might help me?”
Pooser studied the female carefully. She was dark-haired and fair-skinned, only a few years older than he was. Her costume, probably some sort of uniform, was of a single piece that covered her from chin to sole and glinted in the moonlight. The lad had never seen a woman so tall or so fair. Sailors told tales of such women in far off lands, but only from his father had he heard of the cloth that shines in the light and the magical people who wore it. He thought of the harbingers’ forecast and decided the woman was surely a part of the predicted event. But would helping her be a step toward glory or toward doom?
“Who are you?” he finally asked.
“My name is Jane Potter. I’m from Fairbanks, Alaska. I’m not sure how I got here; the Gates were supposed to be locked. I’m not even sure where I am, but I’m looking for someone. She must have come this way or I wouldn’t be here.”
The woman smiled then, and Pooser was convinced. Though much of what she said was gibberish, her smile was as magical as her clothing.
“What does this woman look like?” he asked, relaxing a little.
“Oh, she’s quite beautiful, in a cheap sort of way. She’s very tall with long, silver hair that shines in the light like my jumpsuit. Her eyes are silvery, too. She has high cheekbones, full lips, a wonderful complexion, and a body like a brick…well, let’s just say she’s built pretty good. But the thing you probably would have noticed is that her clothing only covers one side of her body; she’s naked on the other side. And she’s blue.”
Pooser dropped his sack to the sand. “Did you say blue?”
“Yes.” Jane smiled again. “Have you seen her?”
The boy locked his fingers behind his back and stared down at his bare toes. “I saw a foot,” he said. “It looked blue. I thought it was a trick of the light.” He should have noticed the blue woman! How could he ever become a real sorcerer if he didn’t pay attention to what was going on around him?
“Do you know which way she went?”
“She went to the city,” Pooser said, nodding inland. He continued to watch his feet.
Jane glanced over at the small clump of low buildings. Lights shone in perhaps a half-dozen windows and a few street lamps flickered dimly.
“Thank you,” she said. “It shouldn’t be too hard to find her.”
Pooser contemplated his predicament as Jane walked toward the city. Did he have the right to meddle in this affair when his actions could destroy the world? Was even a great prize worth such risk? On the other hand, what had the world done for him? If it was destroyed, and he with it, it would end his loneliness. Besides, maybe Charon would be destroyed if he did nothing. Fate had shown him the possibilities; fate would have to take the responsibility.
He picked up his bag, slung it over a shoulder and ran after the woman. “Lady Janepotter of Fairbanksalaska!” he called.
Jane turned and waited for him. “What is it, Pooser?”
“A lady alone is not safe in the city,” he told her. “Especially not after dark. I offer you the protection of the Sorcerer Supreme.”
“I appreciate the offer,” she said. “But it must be getting late here. You really should go on home.”
The boy shook his head. “I have no home, Lady Janepotter of Fairbanksalaska. The bones told me of your coming and the dragon’s teeth predicted great danger. I will see you safely to your journey’s end and be rewarded fairly.”
Jane suddenly realized that she knew nothing of this world she’d literally stumbled into. She had hoped to just grab Lyssa by the hand, or the hair, and drag her back to the Main Gate. That was no longer possible. The gateway she had used must have dissolved away all ready, for her token gave no indication of its presence, or of any Gate anywhere, for that matter. Even if she found the Princess right away, she had no idea how to get back to Sunny and the others. Perhaps she could use an ally, even if he were only a little boy.
“Very well.” She smiled that wonderful smile again, took his free hand in hers, and together they walked toward the city. “But forget all that other stuff and just call me Jane, okay?”
Within a few minutes they were on the boardwalks. The noxious fumes began to dissipate as they moved away from the sea. Jane found the term “city” to be an exaggeration. The few dozen buildings they walked passed on the outskirts of town were single story dwellings of unpainted wood, that had turned black from exposure to the acidic air. Most of them were accompanied by small out houses that Jane recognized all too well as a testament to inadequate plumbing.
Here and there homeless people slept in piles of leaves wedged up against a building or in some other small, makeshift shelter. One old man, bearded and dirty, sat leaning against a street lamp snoring loudly, an empty clay jug in his hand. His stained, brown coat was too big Jane noticed, and his pants were too short.
What have I gotten myself into this time, she wondered and chuckled; it was a lot like home.
As they neared the center of town, the people in the streets were more animated. Some stood talking in small groups under streetlights, others strolled two by two or stood whispering in the shadows. All of them noticed Jane. They were small people. Even the tallest men were shorter than Jane and slight of build. Most of them stopped talking and gawked at her, but a few of them approached her, their eyes traveling up and down her body with obvious interest. Soon she and the boy were nearly surrounded by a small knot of leering men with dark hair and leathery skin.
The boy led her quickly through an open doorway into what appeared to be a local drinking establishment. Smoky, coal-fired lamps gave the place a murky atmosphere, but didn’t seem to dampen the festive spirits of the patrons, some of whom sat at wooden tables swigging a dark, putrid brew and playing games. Others danced to the terrible music produced by a man who played one instrument with his feet, another with his hands and a third with his mouth.
Five or six of the admirers Jane had attracted outside followed her in, Pooser noted nervously, and again everyone was looking at the tall stranger. “We seek a female with blue skin,” the youth shouted, “have any of you seen her?”
“Aye, lad, that we have,” answered a nearby merchant seaman with brew stains on his red and yellow tunic. “Half of her, at least.” The crowd laughed heartily, the sailor grinned and pressed closer to Jane. “Friend of yours, is she?” He took hold of Jane’s arms, pulled her to him and looked up at her face. “I might be persuaded to take you to her if offered the proper incentive.”
Pooser reached into his bag and a hush fell over the crowd. “I warn you, pirate dog! This female is under my protection,” he spoke with sinister conviction.
The sailor turned to look at the boy, but did not release Jane. “And who might you be to protect such a prize as this? She will bring near as much in the markets of Madacar as the blue one, I’ll wager. And I’ll not be put off by a ragged whelp.”
A few of the sailor’s friends shouted encouragement—those who did not know Pooser. Most of the locals, however, backed away, both from Pooser and the sailor. Some hurried out of the establishment altogether.
Pooser withdrew from his bag an instrument that looked like an old Thompson submachine gun and said, “I am Pooser, Sorcerer Supreme of all Charon. Unhand the female or suffer the agonies of the damned!”
“A mighty bark from such a pup.” The sailor and his friends laughed heartily. Pooser raised his weapon and the ignorant sailors stopped laughing as everyone else dove for cover.
“I’d believe him if I were you,” Jane told the sailor. “Everyone else seems to.”
The sailor released one of her arms and glanced about the room at the patrons. Most of them were hiding under tables or chairs. One was crawling out the door on his belly, another crouched in a corner of the room holding his hands over his eyes.
“Perhaps I’ve been a wee bit rash,” he said, nodding at a friend.
He smiled at Pooser, the friend hurled a mug at the boy, and Pooser cut loose with the Tommy gun. Bullets and shell casings sprayed the room. Glass lamps and clay jugs exploded. Walls, tables and chairs splintered. Thunder, wood chips and gun smoke filled the air. Grown men cowered, screamed and cried for mercy. Pooser stumbled into a table and fell to the floor and the Tommy gun chewed holes in the ceiling until its clip was spent.
When Pooser finally got back on his feet, only he and Jane were left in the hall. She said something, but his ears were ringing so loudly he couldn’t hear her. He put the weapon back into his sack, slung the sack over his shoulder, took Jane by the hand and led her back out onto the street. Again everyone watched them, but this time no leering admirers approached.
Pooser and Jane searched the other saloons without incident and without finding the blue girl. “It is no use,” Pooser said. “She has been sold to the traders. We will have to go to the docks and barter for her.”
“What kind of place is this?” Jane asked as they walked the now-deserted streets. “Women are bought and sold like cattle and little boys carry machine guns. Where did you get that thing, anyway? It couldn’t have been in your sack all the time. It isn’t big enough. And where is it now? I saw you put it in there, but the sack looks as empty as it did before.”
Pooser smiled. “This is no ordinary sack,” he said. “My father is the Sorcerer Supreme. This is his magic sack, his bag of tricks. I’m taking care of it for him.” He hefted the bag. “It is empty most of the time, but it often contains something useful. Here, I’ll show you.” He stopped walking, unslung his bag and let her peer into it. There was nothing inside—just an eerie blackness at the bottom.
“Hungry?” he asked. Jane nodded. Pooser reached into the blackness and pulled out a yellow, pear-like fruit. He handed her the fruit, got another for himself, and hefted the bag back over his shoulder.
“That’s amazing!” Jane told him.
“Of course,” he replied. “It’s magic.”
Dawn was lighting the sky as they turned toward the docks. Suddenly, two men jumped out of the shadows from between two buildings. Pooser and Jane never knew what hit them.

Recovering

2010-04-21T10:21:00.000-07:00

I seem to be recovering from my heart surgery (Only been back in the hospital once.) So I guess it's time to start back in being an author/writer. I've got some more books ordered, will be placing signed copies with my publisher in case anyone wants to order some signed books from the publisher, and I should have some left over for myself. By the way if anyone wants to buy a copy of The Last Guardian, it is available from my publisher at www.mundania.com or from my website, www.stephenlafevers.wcpauthor.com. Also you can get Drams of April Ten from the publisher at www.whiskeycreekpress.com or my website. Hypnosis in Healthcare is also available from Whiskey Creek or me. I guess my next book, Dark Moon written with Canadian author Beverley Bateman has been delayed due to my illness, but it should be out soon. I'm currently working on a book on Paranormal Hypnosis which explains how to use hypnosis to explore the paranormal. Bye for now , Steve

Out of Hospital, still waiting...

2010-02-13T18:19:00.000-08:00

My heart surgery went okay. I went home for a month then had fluid build=up around my heart and had to go back into the hospital the first of this week. Got out a couple of days ago, feeling much better, however, I'm still waiting to be contacted by my new editor for Dark Moon. The book cannot be released until the final edits are done, so guess it will be a while longer. So long for now. need to get some rest. Steve

What a Christmas gift!!

2010-01-16T19:30:00.000-08:00

I had a heart attack the day before Christmas Eve. I was taken to the local hospital by some wonderful EMS people. The first responder crew showed up first and did a terrific job until the paramedics got there. (Paramedics had to travel 15 miles and the first responders only had to travel 5--That's life in the country) It seemed no time at all between my call and the arrival of EMS. Anyway, I was taken to the local hospital(Which has no surgery) and spent the night there while they confirmed that I had indeed suffered a heart attack and kept me from having another one before they got me to the right place. I was shipped to a bigger hospital in an adjoining county. They did some tests including a cardiac catheterization, and determined that I needed surgery. So they shipped me to Little Rock 160 miles south. That was on Christmas Day. They decided to do a tripple bypass the next day. On that day they did a quadruple bypass which I needed. I am now at home recouperating. I will make the trip to Little Rock Wedensday for follow-up with the surgeon. Perhaps after this is all taken care of I will be able to get back to writing. Writing is soooo hard!

It'a Official!!!

2009-12-08T18:12:00.000-08:00

It is official. I'm not an Eppie Award winner or finalist this year for my new book, The Last Guardian, a scifi/fantasy/Adventure currently availabl at Amazaon.com, Barns and Nobel.com and the publisher at Mundania.com. Also, signed copies of the paperback are available from me: stevelafevers@yahoo.com. Drop me a line if you want one (PLug, PLug). However, I have been chosen to be an award presenter at the awards ceremony in New Orleans in March. That in itself is quite an honor! OH, well, maybe my next book, Dark Moon written with Canadian author Barbara Bateman, will garner the award next year. Hope springs eternal. Steve

Two Great Reviews!!

2009-10-17T19:38:00.000-07:00

Two great new reviews for The Last Guardian have been posted at
ParaNormalRomance: Reviews
and You Gotta Read Reviews.
The first reviewer said "This book has lots of action, lots of humour, and lots of funny and interesting characters that kept me engaged through the whole book." The second reviewer said " This is a remarkably fun and fast sci fi! Full of action and very interesting and varied characters!
CAtch the full reviews at: http://www.paranormalromance.org/reviews/review.php?id=32116 and
http://yougottareadreviews.blogspot.com/search/label/Stephen%20LaFevers

Steve

Just to make things a little harder

2009-08-26T21:59:00.000-07:00

Just to make things a little harder, the gods have decided to take down my internet connection. Things are always hard when it comes to writing, but when you write on a computer, you get used to always having an online dictionary handy and other things. Also you communicate with your editor and publisher via email and when you collaborate on a book with a writer in Canada, you use the internet a lot. I have satellite internet and for some reason, it has decided not to work with my router, so I have to go into the only room in the house that has a wired connection to the internet to use it, also I have to convince my computer that it can communicate with the intgernet via wired connection, and I always forget how to do that. Guess I'll have to get a repair man out again, and he is 30 miles away and charges a fortune to make a house call. Contrary to popular belief it is just hard to be a writer. Steve

Epic Contest

2009-08-07T20:52:00.000-07:00

Well, I'vedone it. Yes, I'm entered in this year's Epic Awards Contst, formerly called the Epies. That name has been dropped because of a perceived conflict with another name. So the contest will have new name this year, but no matter whatit is called, The Last Guardian is entered as a work of science fiction. Cross your fingers for me. Every book of mine that has been entered so far has been a finalist. This year I hope to break that trend by being a winner, but I'll probably break it by not being among the finalists. There are some fine novels entered. Two by last years winner, Darrell Bain.

Making a living on the internet

2009-07-26T20:51:00.001-07:00

When you make a living on the internet, it pays to have the internet. We had an ice storm here several months back and during that time my router was knocked out. Since then, I've been unable to use the internet with my laptop and that is what I do most of my work with. My next book, coming in December from Mundania Press is an ebook and trade paperback horror story set in New Orleans. It is about the Loup garou, and local legendary werecritter. The book was written with a Canadian Author that I've never met. We did everything over the internet. So you can see why I need to have access to the net. Anyway, I have satellite internet service and when my router went out, I bought another and tried to make it work. No luck. I called the internet provider and was told they do not claim it works with routers and if I have a router problem I should call the router company. Instead, I went to the place that installed the internet and router and asked them to come out and fix it. I was told they could only come out if the internet provider scheduled it. Duh. So no help. I bought another router thinking maybe the second one was bad but no luck. I took the router and my new computer to a computer service place and asked them to set it up. They did, but it still didn't work. Finally I was able to get hold of the man who orginally set up my system and he agreed to come take a look at it. HE said the new router had somthing wrong with it. He would return the next week with another router (fourth one) and get me up and running only I never heard from him again and still have no service except from one computer that is tucked away and seldom used. It seems I must do my writing on my laptop in my favorite chair. So I still don't have my official website completed and I haven't done any writing in months. Cross your fingers. Maybe the service guy will come out this week and get the blammed thing working.

Booksigning/X-Men Origins

2009-06-25T15:33:00.000-07:00

My book signing at Hardy, Arkansas went very well. I was quite happy and met several new folks. I had several patients from Hardy area when I worked at the Ozarks Medical Clinic at Highland, AR, I guess that helped.

Also, I recently saw the movie X-men Origins, Wolverine. I thoroughly enjoyed it in spite of the many bad reviews I have seen. As a fan of the comic books, I was quite pleased to learn more of Wolverine's past as that has always been a mystery. What was revealed in the film did not jive 100% with the comics but that is to be expected. Enough jived to make it enjoyable. And I can recommend it in good conscience.

My next book, Dark Moon, written with Canadian Author Beverley Batemann, is due out in December and will probably debut in January at Words/Afterwords in Hardy since that was a good experience. Writing with a pardner is a unique experience, especially when you have never met the pardner. Beverley lives in Canada and I live in Arkansas and we have met only over the internet. However, I enjoyed writing the book with her and can recommend having a writing pardner. For me, it is quite helpful in that it keeps me going. Dark Moon took less than a year to write and the Last Guardian took decades. Steve

Don't forget my Book Signing for Last Guardian!

2009-05-08T18:40:00.000-07:00

Remember, I'll be signing books at Words/Afterwords bookstore and coffee shop in Hardy ARkansas May 23rd from 2-5. Come on by if you have a chance, we'll chat and have a blast! Steve

New Star Trek

2009-05-08T18:33:00.000-07:00

I went to see the new Star Trek movie by JJ Abrams last night and enjoyed it! That in spite of all the harsh words floating around the internet concerning this new version of the old show. Sure there were some plot holes but all in all it was ver enjoyable. I found the new Spock to fit in perfectly. He was Spock as a younger person and fit the part like a glove. The young Kirk didn't mimic the Shatner version although he looked the part, he didn't have the same style as Shatner. That was a little distracting at first but once the thing got rolling, it could be ignored. McCoy was McCoy and Scotty was Scotty. The effects were first class and it was quite well done. I'm not used to reviewing movies, so this is not what you are probably expecting, just my impression as a fan. Steve

Note: Launch is April 25

2009-04-11T20:14:00.000-07:00

I neglected to mention in my previous post that the launch party for The Last Guardian is scheduled for April 25. It is. Steve

Book Launch Party for The Last Guardian

2009-04-11T20:09:00.000-07:00

It's official! I have a copy of The Last Guardian in my grubby hands at last. It is beautiful, buy they always are. This one is especially good looking though. Anyway, I will be Launching the book at a Party at a bookstore in Hardy, Arkansas called Words/Afterwords. If you are anywhere in the neighborhood, Stop in. I will be giving away a print copy of Dreams of April Ten, the Eppie Award finalist Thriller, as a door prize. More details as they become available. Steve

I'm Baack!

2009-03-09T17:15:00.000-07:00

I'm back from Las Vegas and Epicon. I gave out the Eppie Award for best Science Fiction Novel of the year and met with my publishers. Had a terrific time. Epicon is always the Best writer's convention I've ever been to. I'm currently working on a how-to book on paranormal hypnosis and will begin posting excerpts from it here to see what everybody thinks about it. Oh, I almost forgot, according to my publisher, my novel, The Last Guardian, should be available at Amazon.com anytime now. It is currently available in both ebook and print at the publisher website www.mundania.com.
See you soon. Steve

The Day Has Come!

2009-03-04T18:07:00.000-08:00

The day has finally arrived, The Last Guardian, is now available at the publisher's website.
it will be available at other outlets soon, but for now You can only get it by going to www.mundania.com and clicking on the picture of the book to buy it via paypal or your credit card. Thanks all. The wait is over. Now I'm off to Las Vegas where I'll be presenting the Eppie Award for best science fiction novel. See you soon. Oh, and buy my book! Steve

Last Guardian Due Out This Month!

2009-02-12T07:37:00.000-08:00

Well, I've received word from my publisher, Mundania, That The Last Guardian, my scifi/fantasy/romantic adventure is due for release at the end of this month. If that holds, it will be available for Epicon, the writer's convention where I will be a presenter at the Eppie Awards being held this year in Las Vegas. That will be nice if I can arrange to have some copies on hand. We've just suffered through one of the worst ice storms in the hystory of Arkansas and I went two weeks without electricity. The worst part is since we have a well, that means no water for two weeks and no indoor plumbing. Everything is back to normal now though. Many folks did not have heat and it was extremely cold, so it could have been worse. We had heat.

Waiting....

2008-10-03T09:52:00.000-07:00

I'm waiting for Halloween! It is my favorite holiday. You can imagine that as a writer of fantastic fiction, I enjoy dressing up as fantasy characters and seeing others dressed similarly. I'm also waiting for the release of my book, The Last Guardian. It is in the final stages and should be released anytime. The publisher has had some problems. Ike, the terrible storm that hit Texas, also hit my publisher who is in a northern state. They were without power for several days. Then, when power was finally restored, their computers went down. I expect things to get back to normal there soon and hopefully, The Last Guardian will be released soon. Also, I'm waiting for Dark Moon, my horror novel written with Beverley Bateman, to be sent to me for final editing soon. I hope it is released before the end of the year, or at least before Epicon, the writer and publisher's convention to be held in Las Vegas in March. I'm still waiting for my back to stop hurting. I still have pains going down my right leg when I stand or sit for a long time, and even when I lie down sometimes. I was told that should pass but it may take up to 18 months. I'm going back to the surgeon for follow-up in a few days and maybe I'll find out more about that then. In the mean time, there is an election about to happen and I've been very impressed with Sarah Palin! Didn't care much for anyone who is running until she came along. I like her a lot. But that is just me. Obama and Biden will probably win. That's just what we need. Two lawyers! I haven't done any writing since my back surgery. Thought I'd do better if I waited until the pain went away, but it looks like I'm going to have to write with the pain, so I guess I'd better get started. See you next time.

New Book still not available, Back from ct scan

2008-06-16T18:42:00.000-07:00

The Last Guardian is still not available and neither am I, so I guess that's allright. I need to be able to do book signings and promotions when the book comes out and so far, I'm still in a lot of pain even after the surgery has healed. I returned to Little Rock today for a CT scan and will see the surgeon again in a week to see if more surgery is needed. Keep your fingers crossed. Steve

I'm out of Surgery, But Last Guardian Is Not Available Yet

2008-03-30T19:50:00.001-07:00

I've had back surgery. Been out a couple of weeks and so far I cannot tell that it has helped my situation at all. I have the same pain as before the surgery. At least I came through it in one piece which is a plus. Mundania Press has had some slow-downs recently due to a number of things we won't go into here. Suffice it to say that I am not really upset with them. At any rate, The Last Guardian, which was supposed to originally be made available in print and ebook in January is still being worked on. I am happy to wait a while because I believe that when it does come out it will be a really good product, judging by the cover they came up with. I sent in the final blurbs today and hopefully the book will be in print shortly, so if you've been waiting to purchase and read it, you'll have to wait just a little longer. And don't forget, Dark Moon a horror novel of the Loupe Garou in New Orleans is scheduled to come out shortly as well. Maybe I can replace Stephen King as the master of horror, but I doubt it. FYI, and for truth in advertizing's sake, I must say that Dark Moon was written with Canadian author, Beverley Bateman. That has nothing to do with me not becoming the master of horror, it is just a fact. Stay tuned for more news. Steve

Final Edits Excerpt2

2008-02-21T10:23:00.000-08:00

I just finished the final edits for The Last Guardian and returned them to the Editor, so the book should be in print soon. It took several days to go over the manuscript and make the necessary changes. It could have been done quicker if I were feeling better. I'm going to have to have surgery, so may not be writing here for a while. In the mean time, here is another excerpt from The Last Guardian:

The northern lights sang and danced in the heavens like pastel wisps of cotton candy in the evening breeze. Their music, their colorful splendor, their mystery, was lost among the roaring engines and sodium vapor lights. Pump Station Eight was a huge, sprawling complex midway along the trans-Alaska pipeline. Among its numerous structures were shops, warehouses, the pump station itself—a building so large that workers rode bicycles up and down the halls—and a tank farm where crude oil, diesel, and gasoline were stored in checker-shaped containers, each holding over two million gallons of flammable liquids.

Like many other pipeliners, Sarah Jacobson had not seen the night sky for months. The pump station’s lights were just too bright. The first things most workers noticed when they finally got away from the station were the onset of darkness, the stars, and then the northern lights. The workers always wondered how they hadn’t missed the night until it was upon them again.
Sarah had been a security guard throughout construction of the pipeline. Having worked from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez, she had seen many strange and sometimes wondrous sights—bears tearing the doors off of trucks to get at lunch bags left on the seats, wolves eating sandwiches from the hands of pipeliners, caribou walking on top of the pipe to avoid the camouflage environmentalists had insisted be used to hide the pipe from caribou, gold nuggets the size of ping-pong balls unearthed by machinery—but never had she seen anything more fascinating than the ravens playing in the exhaust from the jet engines that turned the pumps.
Three enormous engines, each producing enough heat to warm a 40-story office building, were being tested at Pump Station Eight. Scores of the big, black birds were soaring in the updrafts. Lazily, the birds glided up, down and around, their wings spread to catch the warm currents. Some danced together in the heated breeze, others played catch with a foam cup like children with a Frisbee. A few hung nearly motionless in the sky above the station basking in the warmth.
Sarah couldn’t stop watching the spectacle. It was an unexpected delight—a benefit result of the construction beyond economics, but a short-lived benefit for Sarah. The birds suddenly broke away, almost as a unit, soaring out beyond the reach of the lights. For a moment, Sarah wondered what had frightened them. Then she noticed a ragged, quivering smudge on the side of the manifold building.

“What the hell?” Sarah strained to see better. The smudge grew until it was the size of a small house. Maybe it was just a trick of the light. She took a couple of steps toward the manifold building. The smudge was beginning to look like a gigantic hole. An instant later, Sarah Jacobson and Pump Station Eight vanished in a fireball that was seen for thirty miles.

Reading ebooks on the PSP

2008-01-15T10:04:00.000-08:00

For those who enjoyed excerpts, I posted an excerpt of The Last Guardian last time to this blog, and I intend to post another, however, I have decided to pass along a discovery of mine this time. There is a lot of talk among writers and in the press lately about ebook readers, a device for reading ebooks. Amazon has just come out with the Kindle ebook reader for about $400 and Sony has come out with one for about $300. Fictionwise still has their ebook reader for about $200 or less, and they are all all good but expensive just to read a book. The cheapest way for many to read ebooks is on a PDA. Palm makes several PDA's that are inexpensive and all read ebooks. I have a Palm and have read ebooks on it. I like it but the screen is really too small. An even cheaper method for many of us is the PSP. Many of us already have PSPs in the house, our kids play games and watch movies on them. If you don't have one already, you can get one new at Wal-Mart for about $160. The, PSP or Play Station Portable, has a large backlit screen that you can read in either landscape or portrait mode, you can change the brightness and type size and colors. You can even display photos, book covers, etc. It is rechargeable and will run for about 7 hours on a charge. You can flip the book page backward or forward with a button and the pages are crisp and easily read. I have an ebookman, and palm, but I prefer the PSP for reading because the screen is so big and bright. You have to pick up a program (free) on the internet for creating ebooks or download the directions because the machine does not come prepared to read ebooks. That is the only drawback, but using the free program PSP Ebook Creater, I was able to convert, load and start reading The Last Guardian on the PSP in about 5 or 6 minutes. It's easy. Steve

The Last Guardian

2008-01-09T10:30:00.000-08:00

Well, Christmas has come and gone and things are getting back to normal. The Last Guardian, a humorous scifi/fantasy/romantic/adventure is scheduled for release this month from Mundania Press: www.mundania.com and to promote that I'm including an excerpt here:

I was having dinner in an Anchorage restaurant the first time Lyssa appeared. She was frightened, half-naked,
and, as I would discover, the harbinger of unimaginable disaster.

It was the fall of 1977 and I was seated across the table from my nephew, Sunshine Honeysuckle Burroughs.
Yes, that’s his real name. His mother called him Honey for short. Can you imagine? I called him Sunny. The only
thing Sunny was any good at was throwing good money after bad, and it was usually my money. When he asked me
to join him for lunch that September day, I wasn’t worried about universal catastrophe, I was afraid he would hit me
up for a loan.

“This is the sweetest deal you ever heard, Uncle Ed,” he said as the waiter cleared our table. “It’s gonna make a
bundle f’rsure.”

I nodded, mumbled “Umm” and held my cup out for a refill.

“Just let me tell you about it!” He popped the allergy tablet he had been playing with into his mouth, washed it
down and spun his bottle of Valium around on the tabletop. “You can double or triple your money! I guarantee it.”

He got that faraway look in his eyes that always accompanied his dreams of unearned wealth. On and on he
droned about oil leases in the arctic and millions of dollars waiting to be snatched up by those who could see the
opportunity.

The trans-Alaska oil pipeline was almost finished. The populations of Anchorage and Fairbanks had swollen
until people were living in tents and paying a fortune for any piece of lawn in somebody’s yard to sleep on. The
economy was booming and there was talk of a natural gas pipeline to follow.

“Then they’re going to move the state capitol from Juneau to Willow,” he concluded. “We’ll make billions on
that deal.”

That’s when she appeared. She seemed to just materialize a few feet from our table. She looked puzzled, as if
lost. I’d lived in Alaska nearly fifty years and had seen a lot of strange things, but never anything to equal that young
woman. Sunny stopped talking when he saw the astonished look on my face.

“Uncle?” he asked. “Are you all right?” Then he turned and saw that incredible creature.

She looked about eighteen or nineteen years of age and was more than six-feet tall. The left side of her body was
entirely nude, except for the sweat on her forehead and the bright blue coloring of her skin. Her disheveled hair was
the color and luminance of polished silver and hung down to her waist. A soft material that matched the color of her
hair covered the right side of her body. It clung to her flawless flesh like plastic wrap to a hot dish, and covered even
the right side of her face, except for the eye and lips, right up to her hairline. I couldn’t see through the material, but
I could see every little line, every expression of her face, as if the material were not there at all. What I saw written
on that exquisite face, in those silver eyes, was absolute terror!

As Sunny stared, the lovely creature bolted forward, took hold of his shoulders and said something I didn’t
understand. She pulled at him, pleadingly, and looked as nervous as a Beirut businessman. Then a man’s arm
wrapped itself around her shoulders from behind and pulled her roughly back. I glanced up and saw a tall, muscular,
handsome fellow wearing a ridiculous looking black, leather harness. He dragged the poor girl back a couple of
steps from our table. Then, they simply vanished.

I guess we both sat there stunned for a while. I know I did, because that’s what I was still doing when the waiter
calmly placed our dessert on the table a few moments later. “Will there be anything else, Mr. B?” he inquired.

I mumbled something in reply, and he started to leave, but I pulled myself together and stopped him. “Did you
see anything…peculiar just now?” I asked.

“No, sir. Is something wrong?”

“No.” I replied. “Everything’s okay.”

As the waiter walked away, Sunny leaned over the table toward me and put his hand into his lemon pie. He
reached for his napkin, but ended up wiped the topping on his pant leg instead.

“Well, I saw something peculiar f’rsure, Unc!” he said. He picked up the napkin and smeared the mess all over
himself in an attempt to clean it up. “I just saw the most beautiful creature in the world being manhandled by a
Hell’s Angel. At least, I think I did.” He took off his glasses, wiped them on the messy napkin, then mopped his wet
forehead. “So beautiful!”

“It looked more like punk rockers pulling a publicity stunt if you ask me,” I said, still a little shaken.

“No, Uncle, that girl was in a panic, f’rsure. Didn’t you see the look in her eyes? She was terrified! But what
happened? Where did they go?”

“I’m more interested in how they went,” I told him. I got up to examine the area where they had stood. “I sure
would like to know how they did that. Must have been a hologram or something. But that would require a projector
and I don’t see one anywhere.”

“Holograms can’t grab hold of you the way that girl did me, Unc. She was real, and she was in trouble f’rsure.
She wanted me to help and I just sat there like a fool!” He leaned back in his chair with a force that almost turned it
over, but saved himself from a fall by catching hold of the table. Unfortunately, the table was jolted and Sunny’s
coffee cup emptied its hot contents onto his lap.

I finished looking under the table and finding nothing there, I got up and moved to the wall. The bricks seemed
ordinary enough. “What do you mean, trouble?” I asked. “Did you understand what she said?”

Sunny was trying to wring the coffee out of the front of his pants. “I don’t know,” he said, twisting the material
at his crotch. “I think so.” He gave up in exasperation, leaving the front of his trousers looking like a mad dog had
attacked him. “I mean, the words she used were pretty much gibberish, but I could tell what she meant. She was
begging for help. Then that big guy grabbed her and dragged her off.” He slumped back into his chair defeated, and
stared at the floor through his lemon-covered glasses. “And I just let him do it. Now I’ll never see her again. I’ll
never be able to help her.”

“Well, Sunny,” I told him, returning to the table. “Don’t be too hard on yourself. There wasn’t much you could
have done. You saw how big that fella was. And you’ve never won a fight, not even against a little guy.”

“I could win f’rsure if I were fighting for her,” he whined. “I know I could. Did you see how beautiful she was? I
could do anything for her!”

“You’re dreaming, Sunny. You’re a wimp and a klutz. Just look at yourself!” I sympathized with Sunny, really I
did. But I always try to be realistic. “Besides, if we saw what we think we saw, I don’t think anyone else would have
reacted much differently. Quit brooding and come with me.”

I had been eating at this restaurant for years and knew many of the employees by name. Did you ever try to ask
twelve people if they’d seen a half-naked girl with the naked half painted blue? If so, you know what we went
through. Of course, just like in the movies, nobody had seen a thing. We examined the tables, windows and doors.
We even went outside and looked around, but found nothing to explain what had happened.

* * *

The long nights and short autumn days in Fairbanks were giving way to the terrible ice fogs and arctic
temperatures of winter. Many residents try to squeeze a final outdoor fling into their schedule that time of year
because they’ll soon be forced indoors by the weather.

The city’s population had doubled due to the pipeline construction. “Outsiders” streamed in, hoping for fast
bucks and high times. It was almost too much for the permanent residents. Most of them lived there because they
disliked the crime and crush of urban America. Now it had followed them literally to the end of the earth.

Even Fairbanks University student Jane Potter had felt the pressure that September weekend and was determined
to get as far away from people as she reasonably could. In her father’s plane, Jane flew a few hundred miles east to a
place on the banks of the Yukon River called Eagle City. It was just what she needed.

Ninety years ago, Eagle City had been a thriving metropolis of 35,000 souls, living, dying, working, cheating,
riding the boom of Klondike gold. There had been casinos, banks, bordellos, a cavalry post, even an immigration
office to deal with Canadians coming to search for the yellow metal.

All that was gone now, except the old immigration office, and the hundred or so folks who call the place home.
Jane sat on an abandoned pile of wood that had been cut and neatly stacked nearly a century before. She gazed at the
ruins of a once-lively cavalry post. A memorial at the stables proclaimed: “Half their horses died the first winter.”

Turning east, she saw row upon row of firewood stacked beside the pipe that had carried water to the fort. Along
the way, the pipe passed through a series of small buildings. Each building contained a stove where wood fires kept
the water from freezing before it got to the next building and so on until it reached the fort. The fort was in ruins, but
the pipeline and wood remained nearly unchanged.

Jane got up and walked among the ghosts of men and times long gone, knowing that, like Eagle City, Fairbanks
would not always be teeming with society’s greedy rejects. She wondered if someday only the oil pipeline and its
pump stations would remain to show what had once been there.

It would soon be dark, she thought and zipped up her parka against the chill. She would have to leave soon if she
were going to stop at Chicken on the way home. She had never been to Chicken, but had heard the story of the
original settlers who wanted to name the place after the local birds, but couldn’t spell Ptarmigan. “Hell,” someone
said. “Let’s just call it Chicken.”

Her spirits lifted, Jane turned and walked briskly toward the airfield that had once been a parade ground. It was
only a few hundred feet to her father’s Supercub, but before she reached the aircraft, she quietly dissolved away.

Last Guardian to Debut in January!

2007-11-25T21:29:00.000-08:00

My humorous, scifi/fantasy adventure, The Last Guardian, is scheduled to come out in January, probably the end of January and you will be able to purchase it at the publisher's website. Read all about it here: http://www.mundania.com/books-lastguardian.html If the link doesn't work, cut and paste it into your browser's address line. If you want an autographed copy, just drop me an email at steve@lafevers1.com and I'll make arrangements.

The Last Guardian Cover is up at Mundania!

2007-10-06T11:34:00.000-07:00

There is a lot of news since my last post. The most recent is that Mundania Press has posted the cover for my book The Last Guardian. The book isn't due for release until January but you can see the cover now. I don't know if that means it is available for pre-order or not, though. Also, since my last posting, my brother, Jim, has had a double bypass. He was vacationing in Virginia Beach when he started feeling ill and went to the hospital where they discovered his need for open heart surgery. JIm was a major help in writing Dark Moon, a horror novel about the legendary creature, Loup Garou in New Orleans. It is due out in April from Mundania Press. Anyway, Jim helped with the scientific aspectes of Dark Moon. He used to run Argonne National Laboratory and helped me with the physics of Dark Moon. He is doing very well now, but I went to visit after the surgery and that was a difficult trip. I'm still way behind on my writing for Paranormal Hypnosis but will try to post an excerpt soon.

The scene depicted on the cover of The Last Guardian is at the end of an air battle between tall ships filled with lighter than air gas. One of the ships explodes and the burning debris falls onto the other ship causing a double conflagration. I like the cover. Hope the book sells. It is a humorous scifi/fantasy/adventure with cliff-hangers every few pages. The reason it took so many years to write is that I didn't want to have cliff-hangers that the reader could figure a way out of...so I wrote them so that I couldn't figure a way out. It took months, sometimes longer, just to figure out how to get the main characters out of the fixes they got themselves into.

TTFN, Steve

It's been a month

2007-08-16T16:33:00.000-07:00

It has been more than a month since my last post here. In that time, I've been to the Mouintain Home Writer's Group meeting twice, been to Reno and didn't even get married or divorced, and been to Words and Afterwords at Hardy, Arkansas. Missed the owner both times, but hope to set up a book signing there in the near future. Words/Afterwords is a bookshop/coffeeshop in Hardy. I've been told he likes to promote local writers and I'm always looking for that. Since I've been traveling so much it has been hard to get much work done. Actually, I've done no work this month, but hope to get started again in the morning. Afterall, this is Writing Made Hard, and it is made hard mostly by me finding other things that I simply must do--that means I can put of the writing and I often do, but I simply MUST get started writing again. I'll let you know about the book signing. I'm also investigating the possibility of a signing at a small book store at Moko, AR. TTFN, Steve

2007-07-10T08:19:00.000-07:00

I'll be attending the Mountain Home, Arkansas writer's group meeting this Saturday. If you are in the neighborhood, drop by.
I'm currently working to two manuscripts. One is a non-fiction, Paranormal Hypnosis, and the other is a sequel to a book coming out next year from Mundania Press. The book coming out next year is called Dark Moon and it is about the Loup Garou, a kind of Cajun swamp monster that is very similar to a werewolf. I wrote it with Canadian author Beverley Bateman. I hope it does well, it is part of my plan to take Stephen Kings place now that he is about to retire. Steve

Hot Springs for a Soak

2007-07-01T20:59:00.000-07:00

I have a very bad back, hurts all the time, and so I try a lot of things to make it feel better. Seldom do I find anything that actually works, but recently I went to Hot Springs, Arkansas for a soak and a rub. Hot springs is a very historic place. At the turn of the last century, thousands of people were going there regularly by train or any other means available to avail themselves of the waters. Hot Springs water, by the way has been the only water served in the White House since Teddy Roosevelt. Anyway, there used to be numerous bath houses on bath house row and throughout the city. Today there are only a couple still in operation. The National Park Service is restoring the rest of them. It is a wonder what pills can accomplish. People no longer have the time to take a trip to Hot Springs and stay for a week or two to avail themselves of the therapeutic waters, so they spend the day at a doctor's office and get some pills instead. Anyway, I thought I'd give it a try since the pills are not that big a help to me. Actually, to date, hypnosis has done me more good than pills. At Hot Springs, I made an appointment for a soak and a massage at the only resort hotel and bath house that is still doing business and went in to see what would happen. They had me take my clothes off, of course, and get into a bathtub with a water massage and remain there for 20 minutes. It was a strange feeling to be naked with an attendant who washes your legs and back, but it felt wonderful. The attendant also gave me Hot Springs water to drink. After spending the appropriate amount of time in the water, the attendant told me to get out. He helped me and I needed help because I could hardly stand after soaking in the hot water. HE then put me into a sauna for about 10 minutes (my first time in a sauna) . He joked that it was to dri me off. When I came out of the Sauna, I was wetter than ever, but with sweat. He then had me lie on hot, wet towels and he wrapped me up like mummy in sheets, then placed a cold wet towel on my head and face. Boy did that feel good! After spending some time in that cocoon, he directed me to the massage room where I underwent a terrific massage. I was afraid the massage would hurt because my back is really bad, but by that time I was as limp as old lettuce , so the massage felt really good. All in all, it was a wonderful experience and I cannot wait to do it again. I felt better for days! I cannot recommend it highly enough. I just wish I could do it a couple times a week for a while. Steve

A great excuse!

2007-06-09T18:33:00.000-07:00

I just spent three days at the Arts in the Park festival at Bull Shoals City Park. It was a terrific excuse not to write. As you know if you are a regular reader here, I am constant on the look-out for reasons not to get any work done. I took my computer and even fired up my word processor a couple of times. I even added a word to a file, but there were too many people coming by that I could stop working and talk to, so I finally put the computer away and just talked to people. One word isn't much but it is about par for me lately. Steve

Arts in the Park June 7,8,9

2007-06-01T21:55:00.000-07:00

Just so you'll know, I've signed up to have a table at the annual Arts in the Park shindig in Bull Shoals City Park the week-end of June 7,8. I'll be signing copies of both my books, Dreams of April Ten and Hypnosis in Healthcare. Stop in and say "howdy". Steve

Being Hard is Easy

2007-05-25T11:59:00.000-07:00

You would think that writing is easy, and I guess for me it is. After all, you simply have to put words on paper or in my case on the computer screen. The problem for me is that every thing that comes along gives me an excuse not to write. This is Memorial Day week-end, a terrific reason not to write. My brother is coming to visit, we have to put flowers on graves, I'm cleaning out the above ground pool. I would love to do some writing, but I simply have no time. Yesterday I bought the DVD set of the entire Buck Rogers TV series, and now I simply must watch all 38 hours of it, after all I paid for it didn't I? You see how things go, if nothing else, I have to clean up the house before my wife gets home from work. The hardest part of writing is getting myself to do it. Once I start, the words usually flow like water down hill. I have a proposal and the first several chapters of a book on Paranormal Hypnosis that I need to send off to an agent, but I have yet to write the cover letter! Talk about procrastination. It has been weeks since I should have sent that off. I'm also working on a sequel to Dark Moon, a book about the Cajun swamp monster, the Lupe Garou. Dark Moon is coming out next Spring from Mundania Press. Actually it is a combination sequel to Dark Moon and follow-up to Drams of April Ten---a crossover if you will. Speaking of crossover, I've seen several automobiles advertised as Crossover cars. What exactly is that? I've never seen an explanation of what a crossover car is. Is it a vehicle that will run on Gasoline or Diesel fuel? Alcohol or lemonade? I simply don't know. I do know that Congress with the bill they are debating to close the borders and make all illegals legal misses the whole point. It is an immigration bill and what we need is a border security bill. The current bill does not secure the borders. We don't have an immigration problem, we have a problem of no border security. If they would simply build the fence as proposed, and enforce existing laws, the illegals would go home for lack of work and the problems would resolve. That's my theory anyway, for what it's worth which may not be much if anything.

2007-05-09T09:02:00.001-07:00

As an example of how difficult it is to find time for writing (This is Writing Made Hard, afterall) I finally made it back home from New Orleans, way behind on getting the proposal for Hypnosis and ESP, now called Paranormal Hypnosis, ready to send to an agent, only to find that in my absence, the wind had blown my antenna tower (50 feet high) over onto the roof of my house causing quite a bit of damage that I have to get fixed before returning to NEw Orleans this week-end. The damage could cause the the roof to leak when it rains and of course it has been raining steadily much of the time making it difficult to get work done on the roof. Anyway, I have a guy coming out this afternoon to check the roof and give me an estimate and I am leaving on Saturday Morning. Don't know how that will work out. In the mean time I still don't have Paranormal Hypnosis off to the agent, but I do have it ready to print out, finally. I still have to write a cover letter and a proposal, though, and that could take a long time the way I'm going.

In other news, some illegal aliens were arrested trying to buy automatic weapons so they could kill American soldiers in the U.S. So much for the idea that illegals are just Mexican workers trying to make a living doing things we won't do. My solution is simple and makes sense, so probably won't get any traction. I suggest that the first thing to do is close the border so that when illegals are deported, they don't come back illegally. Then deport illegals as they are discovered. You don't have to go out looking for them, but when they are discoverd, they should be deported. Also, make it impossible for them to get jobs here so they will have no reason to keep coming. Finally, (and it should be the last thing done), come up with a guest worker program that people can use to come here legally for work. Those who have come here illegally, should have to return home and apply for the guest worker program. No road to citizenship, no amnesty. Just obey the law. Simple.

2007-05-09T09:02:00.000-07:00

Back in the Saddle

2007-04-01T20:19:00.000-07:00

As Gene Autry used to say, I'm back in the saddle again. Yes, I'm back in New Orleans. The last time I was here, I had a very satisfying book signing. Let's hope lighting strikes twice. I sold out of Hypnosis in Healthcare at the Barns & Nobel in Virginia Beach that was very exciting. I did a book signing with number of other authors were attending the Eppies Award Ceremony. Until next time, keep dreaming. Steve

I'm a Looser!

2007-03-17T21:06:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm back from Virginia Beach where I attended the Eppies Award Ceremony. My latest book, Hypnosis in Healthcare, was a finalist in the non-fiction category. I didn't win but I came in second and that ain't too shabby. Especially since my last book, Dreams of April Ten, was a finalist in the Thriller category. I didn't win for that one either, but there's always next time.

A Cool Reception

2007-03-06T19:56:00.000-08:00

Talk about a cool reception. The temperature here at Virginia Beach where I await the Eppie Awards has been below freezing much of the time with strong winds blowing. The hotel has wired internet connections in the rooms (not wireless) and the restaurant has been closed since I arrived. I don't know about the bar. Otherwise it has been terrific here. The view from the room is fantastic, the service is wonderful at the hotel, and the people of Virginia Beach are very friendly. The food is great if you don't mind leaving the hotel in the cold wind to find some. However, I'm enjoying my stay very much. I have also agreed to accept the award for Darrel Bain if he wins since he cannot be here to accept it in person. Darrell is the only person I know who actually makes a living writing fiction. I hope to catch up with him someday. Steve

The Answer to Global Warming: NUKES

2007-03-02T13:08:00.000-08:00

In the midst of packing my Tux in preparation for the Eppie Awards, a brilliant idea came to me. Remember back in the '70s when everyone was predicting a new ice age as a result of global cooling? Also remember that about that time there was a lot of talk of Nuclear Winter resulting from Atomic Bombs going off. Well I have put that together and come up with a cure for Global Warming. All we have to do is drop the ban on above ground nuclear testing--the ban apparently stopped the global cooling and ushered in global warming--and set off a few atomic bombs. This will offset the global warming with global cooling and everything will revert to normal. Or, if we don't want or need to conduct above ground nuclear tests, all we have to do is wait for the Iranians or North Koreans to do their testing and that will result in an end to global warming. If you are in to waiting, try this one on: Global warming is supposed to be caused by burning carbon based fuels, predominantly oil based products. We are also supposed to be running out of oil. So all we have to do is nothing different until the oil is gone, and the problem will cure itself. See you at the Eppie Awards, Steve

A Matter of Survival

2007-02-23T13:37:00.000-08:00

Like it or not, the political season is beginning. There are many announced and unannounced candidates for President of the USA and people are already saying certain candidates cannot be elected because of their stands on abortion, taxes, gun control, education, healthcare, etc. The problem is that the main point of this election is being lost in the smoke. This election is not about abortion or taxes, it is about our survival as a nation. What you think about abortion or healthcare will be irrelevant if you are dodging suicide bombers and facing Mecca 5 times a day to pray. Besides, the President of the United States is not a lawmaker. He does not regulate abortion, taxes or healthcare. He is the head of the armed forces and is responsible for keeping the nation in one piece. My advice, for what it is worth, is to determine which candidate will be the best at conducting the armed forces in such a way as to keep the USA a sovereign nation by controlling the borders and killing or otherwise controlling the Terrorists who want to destroy us as a nation. Think about it. Steve

Heat

2007-02-22T12:02:00.000-08:00

I always thought I lived in the South. During and before the War Between the States, Arkansas was a southern state. When my dad was a kid, he grew cotton and tobacco on our farm in Arkansas, generally considered commodities grown in the south. When I was a kid, it was HOT in the summers where we lived in Arkansas. Now I find that Arkansas is in the Mid-West and it is no longer very hot here. The winters are cold as the devil and yet we have global warming. What is going on? Speaking of global warming, I lived in Alaska for 16 years, a place that could stand some warming, and it seems that centuries ago, Alaska was sub-tropical, which explains all that oil. When the Vikings migrated to Greenland, the grew grapes and other things that require a warm climate. There are even maps of Antarctica made before it was covered in ice. So maybe this global warming is just a return to normal? Maybe we're still just thawing out after the last ice age. After all, all those melting glaciers were formed during the ice age, a condition that wasn't really normal. Also, the more things heat up, the more water will evaporate and the more rain we'll get, so maybe global warming is the worlds fix for all the desert areas that have been created in the past few centuries.
Speaking of desert, I've got my tux all spiffed up and packed and I'm ready to head for Virginia Beach to the Eppie Awards. Keep your fingers crossed and maybe I'll come home with a trophy. Steve

Eppie Finalist

2007-02-11T20:33:00.000-08:00

My latest non-fiction book, Hypnosis in Healthcare from Whiskey Creek Press, is a finalist in the Eppie Awards. I will be traveling to Virginia Beach next month for the awards ceremony. Cross your fingers for me. I hope to win. This is my second book and it is the second book to be a finalist, the First was Dreams of April Ten, a fiction thriller. I didn't really have any hopes of winning on that one as it was my first novel. I'll let you know how it comes out when I get back. Steve

Resolutions

2007-01-18T08:45:00.000-08:00

One of my resolutions for the new year was to write daily in my blog. You can see from the date how well that has gone. But, since the title of this blog is "writing made hard", it is understandable that I've had a hard time keeping that resolution. The fact is, I just can't seem to find time to write at all, let alone on my blog. I've done very little on my manuscript for my new book tentatively entitled Hypnosis and ESP. However, I resolve today to change all that. I will do my best to write at least once or twice a week, if not every day. Keep watching this space for updates. The holidays are behind us, so it should be easier now.

The movie I was in, A Perfect Day, played on TNT during the holidays. It wasn't exactly terrific, but hey, it was a movie. How many of them these days are terrific? It was okay and I came away from the experience with a new appreciation for the talent of Rob Lowe. Steve

Merry Christmas

2006-12-22T20:38:00.000-08:00

At the risk of offending the politically correct, Merry Christmas to all and a Happy New Year too! After all, of the many things celebrated this time of year, only Christmas and New Years are actual National HOlidays that people get off work for with pay. Now that is something work celebrating! See you next year. Steve

I Finaled in the Eppie Awards Contest

2006-12-15T21:55:00.000-08:00

For those of you who do not already know this, my book Hypnosis in Healthcare is a finalist in the General Non-fiction category of the Eppie Awards. The Eppies are given out once per year by a writer's and publisher's organization called EPIC. The awards will be presented at a ceremony in Virginia Beach in March. I plan to be there but fully expect someone else to win. There are some exceedingly excellent finalists. However I am very proud that both of my books have finaled. I previously finaled in a fiction category (Suspense/Thriller) for Dreams of April Ten, my first book published by Whiskey Creek Press. I'm currently working on a follow-up book to Hypnosis in Healthcare about using Hypnosis to explore ESP. I'm also working on a book that includes some of the characters from both Dreams of April Ten and Dark Moon. Dark Moon was written with Canadian author Beverley Bateman and will be published in January, 2008 by Mundania Press, as well my science fiction/fantasy novel, The Last Guardian. So, as they say in The Thing, (original version) keep watching the skys--you may see something by me fly by. Also remember you can email me at stevelafevers@yahoo.com and make arrangements to receive an autographed copy of either Dreams of April Ten and/or Hypnosis in Healthcare, or you can purchase them as ebooks from the publisher, www.whiskeycreekpress.com or www.fictionwise.com or as paperbacks at Amazon.com. See you next time. Steve

A Perfect Day

2006-12-12T22:51:00.000-08:00

A Perfect Day is the name of the movie I was in when I went to New Orleans for a book signing a while back. It will be shown at 8 pm (7:00 Central Time) on TNT (cable/satellite) Monday, December 18. If you want to catch a few seconds of my ugly mug, I'm in the front row of the audience in the final scene in the church. It stars Rob Lowe and Christopher Loyd and is a Christmas movie for the whole family. Okay, back to work for me. Steve

Movies Make Writing Hard

2006-11-26T18:29:00.000-08:00

There are many things in life (my life) that make writing hard for me. Grandkids, kids, the wife, circumstances, arthritis, TV, movies (especially good movies and good TV--I watch when I should write) The same goes for books, especially good books, I read when I should be writing. Last night I went to see Casino Royal, the new James Bond movie instead of writing. It was a terrific movie, the best Bond since Sean Connery quit doing it. It seems that since Connery, everyone has tried not be be like him. Especially Roger Moore and since Roger Moore, every one has tired to be like Roger Moore. The new Bond is very like Connery in character and approach. It was a real pleasure to see something finally done right. Casino Royale was made into a movie once before--a comedy with Woody Allen and David Niven. It was a disaster. This one was really good.

People who remake moves all seem to be making the same disastrous mistake. Perhaps it is a result of the times we live in, but it seems the writers and editors who remake such films as House of Wax and War of The Worlds, take a movie that we love because we love the characters in them. They update the story which seems to translate into change the characters into people we don't like and therefore don't care if they survive or not. This takes all the fun and tension out of the story and all that is left is the central theme...will these characters survive strange events, only the audience doesn't care...sometimes they even hope the characters don't survive. Then the producers wonder why a movie that was loved the first time around is shunned the second time around. Go figure. I believe the first task of a good writer is the make the characters into people the reader cares about--either loves or hates. Then put them into a good story with tension where the reader can root for the characters. Til next time. Steve

Writing is hardest

2006-11-22T19:19:00.000-08:00

Writing is hardest during the Holidays. It is made hard by the fact that everyone around you thinks that because you don't have a "real" job, you can work whenever you want to, translation: whenever they let you. They always have something that you simply must do right now, so you can't waste time writing. So I'm basically off-line until after new years' day. I'm babysitting for my grandchildren, performing chores for my wife, entertaining my son, and doing some Christmas shopping. To top things off, I've been having a lot of inflammation and pain lately. Hopefully that will change when the weather does. I had a new hottub installed today at my physician's suggestion, that should make life more pleasant, but will also take time away from writing. The real pill is that when the installers connected the hottub to my electricity, they disconnected all of my living room outlets and lighting from the electricity. So I will have to get that fixed. More things to do instead of writing.

However, since I've last written here, I had successful microwave radiation of my prostate with few ill effects, and I've been talked into getting a new computer by my son. I'll be getting a Toshiba with a dual core processor and a meg of ram. I don't really need it as I have a resonably new Mac Ibook but perhaps it'll help me wade through the internet more quickly. It is a chore with a 56k connection. Where I live, there is no cable or dsl. I tried a connection via my cell phone and it was faster but very expensive. I do a lot of research on the internet and when I write with a collaborator who lives in Canada and we work together via the internet it is essential to have a fast as possible service.

I constantly worry about losing several hundred pages of a book I'm working on. What if the electricity goes off while I'm saving to the hard drive? What if my house burns down and takes all copies of the work with it. Not so much a problem when there is a copy in Canada, but when I'm not collaborating, it is a constant worry. I have copies in two computers, three hard drives, and two flash drives, but they are all in my house. Since I have a hotmail account, I think I will start emailing copies of my work to myself at my hotmail address so there will be a copy of the book somewhere else if my house is blown away by a tornado, washed away in a flood, flattened by an earthquake, or destroyed by fire. Also, I will be able to quit worrying about computer crashes taking all my work, because I'll be able to access it from anywhere, even the library if it has a computer.

I was disheartened to learn that many school kids today are being taught that Thanksgiving Day started as a way for the Pilgrims to thank the Indiands for helping them get through the first winter. Actually, most of know that it was really a day of giving thanks to the Lord for getting them through the winter. They had more food than they could use, so the invited the indians to join them. Another thing todays children are being taught in many school situations is that the Pilgrams took (stole) everything from the Indians. Actually, the Indians had no concept of private property. They constantly took things that belonged to the Pilgrams and couldn't understand why this upset the Pilgrams. Anyway, HAPPY THANKSGIVING DAY to all in the USA and elsewhere that Thanksgiving is celebrated. I know that Canada has a Thanksgiving Day Celebration but on a different date from the USA. I say, whenever you celebrate it, HAPPY THANKSGIVING and many more. STeve

I'm Back

2006-10-26T21:55:00.000-07:00

I'm back from my book signing in New Orleans. It was very interesting. The city is still a mess. The job of cleaning it up is so huge that it will undoubtedly be years before it is cleaned up, let alone rebuilt. The signing at a coffee shop was fun and interesting. I met some very interesting people and it allowed me to do some research for the book I am writing. Dark Moon that will come out from Mundania Press next year takes place mostly in New Orleans before Katrina. The followup book will take place mostly in New Orleans after Katrina.

I'm also back from a book signing at the Cottage Bookstore in Melbourne, AR today. It was a lot of fun. I was supposed to give a 20 minute talk at 3:30 and another at 5:00. However, it was so much fun, I spoke from 3:30 until 5:30 with a lot of participation by the crowd. Everyone seemed to enjoy it. I know I did. Steve

New Orleans Book Signing

2006-10-05T09:44:00.000-07:00

Here's the scoop on the New Orleans book signing. I'll be in the Big Easy October 12 for a book signing at Marigny Perk, 2401 Burgandy St., New Orleans, LA 70117 (504) 948-7401. The signing is scheduled for 7 p.m. and I'll be signing both my award nominated thriller Dreams of April Ten and my newest release, the self-help book Hypnosis in Healthcare. See you in New Orleans. Steve

Selling Books

2006-09-21T11:10:00.000-07:00

Selling books is difficult. You think that the hard part is writing a book. No. The hard part is getting people to purchase the book. Even if it is a book that they will enjoy reading, people don't know that until after they have read it, so the hard part is getting them to read it. There are hundreds of thousands of books out there, why should people read yours? The same is true when trying to get a publisher to read your book. They have to read it to decide whether to publish it or not, but they receive hundreds of manuscripts per week. They cannot possibly read them all. Why should they decide to read yours? First you have to make it appealing to them. That means using an easy to read typeface, no errors, and a cover letter that entices them to read the manuscript. Is it any wonder that most books don't even get read by a publisher? Publishers like an author to have an agent because that means that someone else has red the manuscript and thinks it is worth reading. That makes it more likely the publisher will invest his time in reading it.

I have a book on hypnosis in healtcare currently available and I'm working on a book about using hypnosis to enhance ESP. If you are interested, here is an excerpt:

Since the beginning of Man's time on this earth, he has used hypnosis and ESP. However, he has not usually known that is what he was doing, and he did not often use them together.

Healers, witch doctors and sorcerers learned early that the bigger the show they put on, the more likely it was that their predictions would come true. Whether they were predicting good health or ill health, life or death, wealth or poverty, when the predictions were accompanied by smoke, fire, noise, dancing, and drama, they were more likely to come true. These were the hypnotists, although they did not know that's what they were. Hypnosis is not voodoo or magic, but voodoo and magic are at least partly hypnosis. Sometimes these practitioners also had high levels of ESP. Frequently their abilities to see or understand things other people could not is what lead them to learn hypnotic techniques. It better equipped them to help others or influence events.

Today, we still see these techniques used by many. The tendency to put on a good show is evident at many faith healings, psychic healings, mentalist and spiritualist demonstrations where it is beneficial to have observers believe in what is going on.

Why is this? Not necessarily because the practictioners are fakes. Whether they are fake or not is irrelavent if they succeed. No, there are two reasons these people utilize hypnotic techniques. One is tradition. Others have used smoke and mirrors, so they use them. The other reason is that it increases their successes. The simple truth is that what we expect to happen tends to happen--even if we have to make it happen ourselves. And we are more likely to expect or believe the prediction will come true if it is accompanied by a convincing show--in other words--if we are hypnotized.

But there is a whole other reason to combine hypnosis and ESP. Hypnosis allows the hypnotized subject to concentrate more fully on the task at hand. Whether one is studying for a test, practicing golf, or using ESP, the ability to concentrate is a major asset. Furthermore, hypnosis makes difficult tasks easy and allows one to do things that might not otherwise even be possible for that individual. Thirdly, hypnosis allows one to do things he may not consciously know how to do.

The biggest reason to combine hypnosis and ESP is that combined, the results are far more gratifying than any other way. In all the years that I have been using hypnosis and ESP together, I have never performed an experiment that did not yield what I consider spectacular results—even if those results were not always what I’d expected.

Star Trek, New Orleans, A Perfect Day

2006-09-17T20:00:00.000-07:00

I was anxiously awaiting the new premier of the old Star Trek (remastered and with new special effects, of course) when I received word that my grand daughter had a neurological problem and was going into the hospital in New Orleans, so I hopped in the car and went there. Of course I missed the premier of the new old Star Trek, but my granddaughter was okay and that was worth missing it for. Anyway, it seems there is a real lack of creativity in the entertainment industry when the best they can put out is a revamped show that is 40 years old. Perhaps the new Star Trek Movie by J.J. Abrams will show some originality while also noting that what people really like are the old shows. The best movies were those that took place in the old universe and I hear that the new one will also take place in the same universe as the original series. Kudos to Mr. Abrams for that!

While we're on the subject of mivies, I was in one while in New Orleans. They were filming a Christmas story called A Perfect Day and called for "extras", so I went. The old stories about hurry up and wait in the movies is true, I found. We were there from 2p.m. until 9:30 and they shot about a page or two of the script, probably about 2-3 minutes of the movie. To be fair, they did shoot it several times and from many different angles. We spent a lot of time sitting around while cameras were moved, etc. It was fun, but it is hard to believe anyone would want to do that day in and day out for a living. Rob Lowe and Christopher Loyd were both there and I came away with a new appreciation of both of them. I've always enjoyed Christopher Loyd in every performance all the way back to his "Taxi" days, but never really appreciated Rob Lowe. However, both were very professional, good at what they did and creative people. Rob Lowe even auctioned himself off to the "extras". Something he surely did not have to do after such a long day of shooting. He must have been tired. I found him much more personable and professional than I'd expected. He is also a better actor than I'd thought. The shoot was fun to do even with the waits. However, there was no opportunity to promote my books, and that is what I need to do.

BTW, Don't forget to come to my book signing in Melbourne, AR if you are in the neighborhood. I'll be doing a reading and answering questions as well as signing Dreams of April Ten and Hypnosis In Healthcare. It is October 26 at 3:30 at the Cottage Book Store on the town square. Steve

Star Trek

2006-09-09T19:14:00.000-07:00

This year, those of us who consider Star Trek to be a major influence in our lives celebrate the 40th anniversary of the original Star Trek series. Paramount and CBS are marking the 40th anniversary with a new edition of the old series. It is being re-released with new graphics and special effects and will be shown on 200 tv stations throughout the USA. Ironic that the show originated on NBC and the network that tried to kill it twice before succeeding has let it slip through their fingers again. The original series was a watershed because it used stories written by science fiction writers rather than TV writers. Had the succeeding series done the same thing, they would have been much more watchable. Let's hope that any new series bearing the Star Trek name will also hold to the old tradition of using stories written by science fiction writers. Steve

Book Signing October 26

2006-09-07T20:03:00.000-07:00

Hi: It's been a long time since I've last written here. Sorry about that, I've been babysitting the grandkids and it took all my time. Anyway, I'm back and I'm busy. I've been introduced to the web forums of my new publisher, Mundania Press, which is bringing out two books for me next year. The humorous scifi adventure, The Last Guardian, and the horror novel, Dark Moon, written with Canadian author Beverley Bateman. Current news, though, is that I will be doing a book signing and reading at the Cottage Bookstore in Melbourne, Arkansas at 3:30 p.m. Thursday October 26. If you are in the neighborhood, feel free to drop in. I'll have both The Last Guardian and Hypnosis in Healthcare there with me. Steve

Hypnosis and ESP

2006-08-03T12:24:00.000-07:00

Two my knowledge, only two people have done research into using Hypnosis to enhance ESP. Both did their research in the 1970s. One was Steven LaVelle who wrote the Foreword to my book, Hypnosis in Healthcare, available now from the publisher at www.whiskeycreekpress.com or Amazon.com or Fictionwise.com. Also, you can get an autographed copy buy visiting my website ( www.stephenlafevers.wcpauthor.com ) and droping me a note.

The other person who did research into hypnosis and ESP was me. Steven was on the West Coast and I was in the Midwest. The success of Hypnosis in Healthcare has prompted me to write another book on hypnosis, this one on Hypnosis and ESP. I'm working on it now. It chronicals the experiments I did in the 1970s in detail so the reader can duplicate them or even do them differently in order to learn new things about ESP. Every expriment I conducted into ESP was a success as far as I was concerned. You can make up your own mind. IF you are interested in improving your skills at hypnosis, or in making astonishing discoveries about ESP or simply enhancing ESP, you will find this book enlightening, entertaining, and useful. Stay tuned for more news on Hypnosis and ESP. I may be posting excerpts here that will give you an idea of what it will be all about. Steve

Hypnosis Book Available Now

2006-07-13T19:16:00.001-07:00

Just a quick post to let everyone know that my new hypnosis book, Hypnosis In Healthcare, is available now in both ebook and print from the publisher at www.whiskeycreekpress.com or you can get an autographed copy of the print book at my website, www.stephenlafevers.wcpauthor.com . I have more than 30 years experience in hypnotherapy and family practice, and 50 years experience with hypnosis, so I think there'll be something in this book for just about anyone with an interest in hypnosis or healthcare. It also has a foreword by Steven LaVelle, the formost hypnotherapy instructor/researcher in the the country. Check it out if you have any interest.

Back to Horror and Science Fiction/Fantasy, I have two books coming out next year from Mundania Press. One is the long awaited Last Guardian, a rip-roaring scifi/fantasy adventure in the tradition of the old movie serials with a cliff-hanger every few pages and a lot of humor. The other is Dark Moon, written with Canadian thriller author, Beverley Bateman. It is a dark story of the Loup Garou. If you like chills, you'll love Dark Moon. Steve

Print Test

2006-05-14T18:14:00.000-07:00

Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers out there. That said, I received my print test copy of Hypnosis In Healthcare yesterday, and boy is it a peach! Thanks to Jinger at Whiskey Creek Press for a really terrific cover, that girl is a real keeper--and to Marsha for a really wonderful job of editing! It does take more than writing to make a great book, you know. It takes cover artists, editors, proof-readers, printers, publishers, more editors, more proof readers, all working together to get the job done. And this time, the job was done superbly. However, I can come up with nothing but praise for the folks at Whiskey Creek Press when it comes to a final product. They really do a wonderful job. Now I have to read it for a final time and find any errors that need printing before the final draft of the print copy is set in stone. I'll be busy for the next couple of days doing that. See you then. Steve

Hypnosis Book Ready For July Release

2006-05-06T08:12:00.000-07:00

Hello all you readers and interested parties out there. Just a quick note to let you know that my hypnosis handbook, Hypnosis in Healthcare, is slated for a July release by Whiskey Creek Press and the cover looks great. Here it is:

Great News!

2006-05-03T22:14:00.001-07:00

Three pieces of good news go together to make great news in my book. First, my thriller, Dreams of April Ten has a new cover, just released. Here it is:
I think it suits the story much better than the old cover art did. Secondly, my hypnotherapy handbook, Hypnosis in Healthcare will be released by Whiskey Creek Press in July. It will be available in both ebook and trade paperback formats. And thirdly, I signed contracts today with Mundania Press on two books: The Last Guardian, a science fantasy adventure, and Dark Moon, a horror tale of the Lupe Garou running around New Orleans killing people right and left. It was written with Canadian author Beverley Bateman and it's a good thing, too, because part of the book takes place in Canada. We wrote it together although we've never met. Ain't the internet a wonderful thing? Anyway, exciting times lie ahead for both writers and readers. Especially now that Sony is bringing out a new ebook reader this summer and people are reading ebooks on their cell phones. Ebooks are the fastest growing market in publishing. Also, many publishers are beginning to bring books out in audio format so who knows, you may be reading my books by ear one day soon. That's it for now, keep dreaming. Steve

You Saw It Here First

2006-03-01T08:05:00.000-08:00

I will be a presenter at the Eppie Awards Ceremony this year. So if you are in the neighborhood (San Antonio, Tx in mid-March) you can see me give out the award for best Non-Fiction. I like to give out the award, it means I actually get to touch one. On another note, The Last Guardian, my scifi/fantasy/humor/adventure will be picked up by Mundania Press and published late in 2007. I received notice last night but have not signed a contract yet, so this is still tentative (don't tell anyone, shush.) That's my news for today. Steve

Finally, some good news!

2006-02-18T18:18:00.000-08:00

And the good news is, Whiskey Creek Press will re-issue my hypnosis book, Hypnosis in Healthcare, after the original publisher, New Age Deminsions has closed up shop. That left the book without a publishing home. Bad news is I don't know how long it will take for WCP to re-edit the book and produce a new cover and get it published, but the good news is it will come out in Paper at the same time it is released in ebook form! If you hear a rumbling noise, that's me jumping up and down. Steve

Publisher is Gone!

2006-02-13T11:35:00.000-08:00

If anyone can make writing harder than it has to be, it is me. My new publisher, New Age Dimensions Publishing, who published my hypnosis book, has ceased operations and all of my books have been pulled from all outlets. So, until I find a new publisher, anyone who wants the ebook, Hypnosis in Healthcare will have to email me at stevelafevers@yahoo.com and arrange to purchase it directly from me. However, I am in talks with another publisher and hopefully the book will be available again soon. Unfortunatley, soon in the publishing world often means months or even years. Steve

Good news/bad news

2006-02-07T05:57:00.000-08:00

Well, I've got good news and bad news today. First the good news, my new book, New Age Guide to Hypnotherapy, Hypnosis in Healthcare, is number 5 as of today on Fictionwise. It feels really good to be back in the top five after a week of not being there. Now the bad news. The publisher of that book, New Age Dimensions Publishing, announced yesterday that they were closing up shop or selling out by March. How will this affect me and my book? (scratches head) Don't know. Steve

Five Angel Review for Hypnosis Book!

2006-02-01T08:46:00.000-08:00

Fallen Angels Reviews website (aka FAR) has given New Age Guide To Hypnotherapy, Hypnosis in Healthcare a rave review and recommeded the book.
The Reviewer states: Stephen LaFevers’ New Age Guide to Hypnotherapy is sure to be invaluable to both novices and students of the craft.
Follow this link to read the whole review, or cut and past the link into your browser's address slot: http://www.fallenangelreviews.com/2006/January/Naomi-TheNewAgeGuideToHypnotherapy.htm
Thank you Fallen Angels!
Steve

Hypnosis Book #1

2006-01-25T18:38:00.000-08:00

I'm back in Dallas, so have limited computer abilities. Just wanted to let everyone know that my newest book, The New Age Guide to Hypnotherapy, Hypnosis in Healthcare has been the number one selling book at www.fictionwise.com in the General Non-fiction category since it's debut. Pretty gratifying. The sequel I'm working on is going very slowly. It is about exploring hypnosis and ESP, that is using hypnosis to explor ESP. I think it will be a very interesting book if I ever get it finished. In the mean time, check out Hypnosis in Healthcare either at Fictionwise.com or the publisher's bookstore (www.nadbooks.com) or at Amazon.com It is currently available only as an ebook, but will be out in paper at a later date ifit does well.

Script Writers Ruin Remakes

2005-12-30T18:24:00.000-08:00

I saw King Kong the 2005 version last week and found it very well done. However, it suffered a little from the same problem that plagues all the recent remakes: when the screen writers "update" the material for modern audiences, they make the characters into people we don't admire. One reason we like the old films is because of the characters. When they change the characters, we no longer like the movies. I want to say that King Kong was well written and did not suffer nearly as much from mischaracterization as many other recent remakes, but the "updating" was still a downgrading of the characters. Let me demonstrate. There is a scene in the original where the film maker first sees the girl who is to be his star. She is out of work in the depression of the 1930's and hasn't eaten in days. She walks past a street vender who has apples on display. She is tempted to take one. She picks it up, then puts it back. The vender sees her putting it back and thinks she is stealing. He grabs her hand and she says "I didn't take it! I wanted to, but I didn't." That same scene is in the remake only in the remake she steals the apple. That makes her a different character. Likewise, the movie maker in the original is a driven person determined to make his film no matter what the cost and is willing to cut a few corners and ignore a few regulations if needbe to get the job done. However, he is honest and a dedicated film maker. In the remake, he is a dishonest scoundrel out to make a buck and willing to get people killed if needbe in order to make a buck. Again, this is a different character. One reason we loved the original is because we loved the characters. They've made the characters no longer lovable. Other than that it is a great movie and I enjoyed it, but not as much as the original.

By the way, if you have an interest in alternative medicine, or hypnosis, check out my new release at www.nadbooks.com click on "Non Fiction" and learn about Hypnosis in Healthcare. It is a great read and very informative if I do say so myself. Steve

New Release

2005-12-22T17:55:00.000-08:00

My new book, Hypnosis in Healthcare, was released today at New Age Dimensions Publishing. You can check it out at the following link: http://www.newagedimensionspublishing.com/ashop/catalogue.php?exp=&cat=63
You may have to copy the link into your browser in order to get it to work.

I am currently working on another hypnosis related book. It deals with exploring hypnosis and ESP. If you are interested in hypnosis, check out my website www.stephenlafevers.wcpauthor.com and drop me an email. I'd love to hear from you. Steve

Merry Christmas!

2005-12-15T21:13:00.000-08:00

Hi, all. I'm still out of the hospital and that's good, but not feeling up to snuff yet. But a lot of folks are suffering illness at the moment, there's a lot of stomach problems going around. Anyway, I finally got up the steam to submit Dark Moon to a publisher. Should know in a few weeks if they want it or not. Then I will submit The Last Guardian. I'm still working on Blood Moon, the sequel to Dark Moon and also working on Exploring Hypnosis and ESP, a follow up to Hypnosis in Healthcare that I just finished proofing last week and should be coming out momentarily in ebook form. Stay tuned, there's a lot going on at the moment. I'm also shopping for a new laptop. Steve

I'm Baaack!

2005-12-12T08:19:00.000-08:00

Well, as the little girl almost said in Poltergeist, I'm Baack! It has been over a month since my last post, sorry, but in that month I've spent a week in the hospital, undergone numerous tests, had a book signing, and had my recipe for Christmas Delight released in the new Author's Unlimited Christmas Cookbook available free as a download from www.authorsunlimited.net . Just go there and click on the picture of the cookbook to download the whole thing for free! That's right, Free! No catch, no information gathered or sold, no contests, just totally free! Can't beat that with a stick. See you soon. Gotta get back to the final edits for my new book on hypnotherapy. It was due out in November but the publisher was in a hurricane...can't blame them for being a little late. Steve

Blood Moon?

2005-10-08T21:03:00.000-07:00

Since Blood Moon takes place primarily in New Orleans and since New Orleans has recently undergone some dramatic changes thanks to Katrina, I've put the writing of Blood Moon on the back burner for now. The storm and its aftermath were terrible and I mourn for the place and the people there. However, so much has been made of the destruction of New Orleans that I feel that many people have overlooked or undervalued the devastation that has overwhelmed the rest of the Gulf Coast. I spent some time doing research in the wonderful old home that is now (?) the President Jefferson Davis Library--I wonder if it is still there?

On a lighter note, I will be in Mountain Home, Arkansas November 12 from 10 until 2 smiling and signing copies of my novel Dreams of April Ten, a finalist in the Eppie Awards this year for best Thriller. My new non-fiction book, Hypnosis in Healthcare is due out from New Age Dimensions Publishing in November and if it is available, I'll have it with me as well. Steve

Twice as hard

2005-08-20T14:05:00.000-07:00

It seems that I'm always making writing hard for myself, and now I seem to be making it twice as hard. I started writing Blood Moon a couple of months ago (I'm very slow), a horror novel that I may be writing with Beverley Bateman since it is a sequel to Dark Moon that I wrote with her, but now for some reason, I've started writing a book on hypnosis and ESP. Not just anyone's hypnosis or ESP but how the reader can use hypnosis to better understand and enhance ESP in himself and others. Which one will I finish first? Will I ever finish either one? Who knows. I'm giving it a shot. Steve

Writing is Hard

2005-08-11T09:41:00.000-07:00

As the title of this blog implies, writing is hard for me and I tend to make it even harder by not working at it as I should. It seems I will do anything to get out of working, but even so, I seem to get something done occasionally. I have a new book coming in November from New Age Dimensions Publishing and just received the cover. I really like it and thought I'd pass it along. Steve

Home Again, Home Again Lickity Split

2005-08-06T21:13:00.000-07:00

I'm still in Dallas, but I'm going home tomorrow. Haven't got much done on my new book, some but not much. That's the main reason writing is hard for me. It seems that most of the time I'll do anything to keep from writing. IF I can't think of anything else I need to do, I'll take a nap. However, there are also the times when I write chapter after chapter at a sitting. I like those times. I think they tend to come when I know where I'm going and how to get there, the other times come when I'm stumbling about trying to get a handle on the story. It usually works itself out in my subconsious while I'm doing other things, or nothing, and then once it is all worked out, I can sit down and write it without much trouble. Now is not one of those times. I have a pretty good idea of where I'm going, but not a very good idea of how to get there. It'll come. Steve

Back in the Saddle again.

2005-08-02T11:20:00.000-07:00

To quote the theme song of the old Gene Autry TV show, I'm "back in the saddle again." Back in Dallas, that is, visiting my daughter and hoping to get some work done on my new novel, Blood Moon. It is a sequel to both Dark Moon which is unpublished and Dreams of April Ten which is available at www.fictionwise.com and www.whiskeycreekpress.com or you can get an autographed copy by emailing me at stevelafevers@yahoo.com . Anyway, it takes place a little in the future, I guess, in New Orleans which is under quarantine. No one is allowed in or out of the Big Easy and no communications are allowed between it and the outside world. It has been that way since an outbreak of some disease 20 years before that caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of citizens. An industrialist, actually a pharmaceutical manufacturer, hires the people at AnswerMan to get his niece who is immune to the illness out of New Orleans. On the surface, that is what is going on, but underneath, it is much more complex. The industrialist has no niece, no one is immune, and the city is over-run with shap-shifting creatures called the Loup Garou! Why does the industrialist really want the girl out of the city? Can the folks at AnswerMan do the job? Where did all those creatures come from? If the girl is infected, will getting her out place the entire world population at risk? And what does all this have to do with Joshua Jones, a 20-year old man who escaped New Orleans just before the place was tied up tighter than a football player's pants? Those are the questions I'm trying to answer, but the more answers I come up with the more questions arise. That is what makes writing hard, I guess.

Farewell, Jimmy

2005-07-20T21:15:00.000-07:00

I met James Doohan twice. I found him delightful. That and having grown up with him on my TV makes me miss him as I would a friend. James Doohan (Scotty) died at 5:30 a.m. at his Redmond, Wash., homewith his wife of 28 years, Wende, at his side, Los Angeles agent and long time friend Steve Stevens said. The cause of death was pneumoniaand Alzheimer's disease, he said. I still miss DeForest Kelley, Bones, who was the first of the original Enterprise Crew to depart for destinations unknown. I hope they both fare well.

Ray Stevens and Fantastic Four

2005-07-17T20:04:00.000-07:00

Recently took in the Ray Stevens show at Branson, MO. All I can say about that is that it was terrific! I thoroughly enjoyed it. On the other hand, I also recently saw the new Fantastic Four movie. What Can I say about that? Well, it was entertaining. So was the original one, the one made by Roger Corman for $1,000,000. The new one had fancier costumes, but it cost about 100 times as much as the Roger Corman movie and it was not 100 times better. It looked better because all that money buys a lot of production values, but they changed the origin story a lot--okay, they had to update it to be believable and this blog is about writing--but they made changes merely for political correctness and that is unacceptable! As an example, everyone who reads Marvel comics knows that they have black people, hispanic people, Asain americans and Asian Asians in them. Everyone also knows that for the last 45 years, Alicia Masters has not been black. In this movie she is black, and the only reason I can think of is because the producers decided they needed a black person in the movie. If that is the case, they should have put in someone who has always been black and not "made" a black person. If they had changed a hispanic or asian person to a black, I think there would have been complaints. (other than mine) As a writer, I appreciate the need to make stories realistic, especially when they are fantastic to begin with, but this was a cheap and lazy way out. If the writer wanted to write a black person into the story, or deal with blacks or any other group on any level, that would have been okay with me, but to take a character who is not black and "make" her black just to pander to a certain audience is simply avoiding the work of writing it correctly.

By the way, I'll be having an Author's Day at the Whiskey Creek Press Reader's Group on July 25. Join me, I'll be there all day. Just click on this link http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WCPreaders/join
or cut and past it into your browser to join the group and visit with me online. I'll be giving away books and other prizes. Come on, it'll be fun!

2005-07-05T18:39:00.001-07:00

War of the Worlds'

2005-07-05T18:39:00.000-07:00

I guess I'm showing my age, but I found the new War of the Worlds way too loud! Maybe it was just the theater I was in. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. This blog is about writing the hard way which is the way I seem to do most things. I wondered about how the writer/producer/director of War of the Worlds would handle the fact that when the book was written, many people took it for granted that Mars was inhabited--that is one reason they accepted the premise that Mars had attacked Earth. However, today, most people take it for granted that Mars is not inhabited...so how would they respond to being attacked by beings from that Planet? This was something that had to be addressed in the film or people would find it totally unbelievable. I thought and studied and thought some more trying to figure out ways to address this problem. Finally I decided to wait and see how the writer of the film handled it. As usual, I worked myself into a dither over nothing. Literally. The screenwriter chose simply not to handle it at all. There is no mention of Mars in the film or where the ivaders came from. A marvelous solution. And a simple one. The special effects were terrific and believable. I heard one critic say that he found it impossible to accept Tom Cruise as Everyman. What a totally idotic thing to say. Here the guy is watching a movie that shows aliens invading and literally destroying the entire civilization of a planet. He can believe that, but he can't believe the actor playing a father!!! But that is par for critics. They tend to not understand scifi and so feel the need to find something wrong with them so they have an excuse for not understanding them. The fact is they simply don't pay attention and so have little idea what is going on in film unless it is a slow-moving gabfest that they can ignore for five or ten minutes at a time while they are taking notes and talking with friends without missing any of the plot. I recommend War of the Worlds, even though I loved the Original. They are apples and oranges. Different but both good.

Batman is back!

2005-06-28T21:02:00.000-07:00

I just returned from a trip to Dallas and while there I finally got to see Batman Begins. I thought it was a terrific movie. It was played dead serious! That's right, no nipples on the armor or any of that silly stuff. Batman finally gets the respect he deserves! The beginning is a little slow, but there is no other way of telling the origin. Everybody knows the basics of how the little boy, Bruce Wayne, sees his parents gunned down by a criminal on the street, but few people really know the details of his life before and after that. Then we get to see how he got his Batsuit, his Batmobile and other toys--we even see him making a batarrang! It is all very interesting. Once he finally puts on the suit, though, about a third of the way through the movie, things really start to roll. Serious Bat fans will not be disappointed in this movie. However, if you liked the nipples and costumed clowns like Mr. Freeze and Batgirl, you may not be satisfied. I thought it was fantastic.

Is it one of those stories that I wish I had written? Not really, but it was pure fun! Which movies do I wish I had written? Somewhere In Time, a film that really wrenches the emotions from a person. Oh and Stargate, although I did kind of write it once in a book called The Last Guardian. Just like Stargate only different--no Egyptions, no pyramids, no military, no big government project, no space ships--otherwise very similar. It has big lizards and flying devils, magicians and tall ships that sail above the seas with dragons following along to eat the garbage--all just like in Stargate. Later, Steve

Batman?

2005-06-19T23:12:00.000-07:00

Just got back from a trip to Little Rock/Pine Bluff. Will be going to see the new Batman movie I hope tomorrow. I'll let you know how that goes. Also, it seems I'll be interviewing Hartley James, one of the characters from Dreams of April Ten, and will be posting the interview to this blog at a later date. If you happen to read this, don't forget to come by the Whiskey Creek Press Reader Group for my Author Day July 29. I'll be giving away an autographed trade paperback copy of Dreams of April Ten. If you are interested, go to www.wcpreader.com and click on the link that takes you to the group. I'll be chatting there all day with readers from throughout the world. You are certainly welcome. Also, if you get the chance, drop by my website, www.stephenlafevers.wcpauthor.com and sign my guest book. I'll randomly select a lucky winner from among the lucky signer's to receive an autographed cover-flat of Dreams of April Ten. Go ahead, what could it hurt? Avid readers will also enjoy Authors Unlimited, a website ( www.authorsunlimited.net ) where a group of authors offer interesting insights, tidbits, and many prizes. Everything there is free. You can even get free download of samples from each of the authors who hang out there. And if you enjoy reading blogs (you must or you wouldn't be here) you can click on the link to the Authors Unlimited blog. See you soon, Steve

2005-06-03T17:50:00.000-07:00

My Award Winning Novel

Back from Tunica

2005-06-03T17:46:00.000-07:00

I just got back from a trip to Tunica, MS. Went to the Hollywood Casino, it was wonderful. Only spent one day. Back to promote my current book, Dreams of April Ten, which is a thriller that has received some great reviews and has been doing really well at Fictionwise.com. Oh, well, time to get back to work. IF you are reading this, another site you will be interested in is www.authorsunlimited.net There is a blog there too. Steve

2005-06-03T17:40:00.000-07:00

Stephen LaFevers

Can't find the time!

2005-06-01T22:10:00.000-07:00

I've almost finished the first chapter of Blood Moon, a horror novel I'm working on, possibly in collaboration with Beverley Bateman, a Canadian writer. Blood Moon is kind of a sequel to Dark Moon using some of the characters from Dreams of April Ten, a strange concept, I guess, but it seems to be working. I always have a hard time finding time to write. I hope to get this first chapter finished and sent to Beverley soon. It would be nice to finish the book this year. Steve

Writing Made Hard

2005-05-31T21:24:00.000-07:00

Well, I've finally gone and done it. I've started a blog even though I have no time for it. I suppose it is really something I need to do both to get things off my chest and to let people know who I am. BTW, who I am is Stephen LaFevers, a writer primarily of science fiction and non-fiction. I currently have a novel out from Whiskey Creek Press called Dreams of April Ten. I thought it was science fiction when I wrote it, but now everyone tells me it is a thriller. I guess there is some over-lapping there. It is about spontaneous human combustion, cloning, genetic engineering, shared dreams, hypnosis and mind control. It is also a puzzle-mystery where the reader tries to solve the mystery as the story goes through twist and turn after twist and turn. I have a non-fiction work coming out later this year from New Age Dimensions Publishing. It is on hypnotherapy.

But enough of that. I went to see the new Star Wars movie over the week-end and found it nearly as enjoyable as the first one. I didn't care for the two most recent as I thought they were too much like cartoons. They were so crammed with special effects that it distracted from the experience. This one had plenty of special effects, but they didn't look like special effects and so were not a distraction. I recommend this movie to anyone who enjoyed the first one, now called episode 4.

I've started working on another book that I think is science fiction and everyone else will probably think is a thriller. It is about the Loup Garou. More later. Steve