The Quest of the Incorruptible

I have a new project in the works: a non-fiction Christian book called The Quest of the Incorruptible.

The book is about humanity's struggle against death. That struggle is ultimately against entropy, because entropy is what causes everything we see to wear out and decay and die. People desparately want to overcome entropy. Many talk about ending war and poverty, for example. They want to change the world and save the planet. But war and poverty are simply manifestations of entropy, and entropy is stronger than people.

If it weren't, we could create perpetual motion machines that would provide endless energy and make everyone idle and rich. But we can't. The whole "saving the world" thing is impossible for people; we just can't do it.

The only possible hope for humanity is that there is something stronger than entropy. Since entropy and corruption are much the same thing, that something might be called the Incorruptible.

Does the Incorruptible exist? Can we find it? Will the Incorruptible save the world? And if so, how?

The book will explore all that, and more.

Rick Brant

The Rick Brant Science Electronic Adventures are my favorite classic juvenile series books. The characters are exceptional:

• Rick himself: an electronics wizard and all around nosy fellow;
• Scotty: the husky former Marine, Rick's foremost pal;
• Barby, Rick's sister;
• Jan, daughter of a scientist, Barby's best friend, and Rick's crush;
• Dismal the dog;
• Chahda: the Hindu boy, mastermind, and good friend of Rick and Scotty;
• Dr. Zircon: the barrel of a scientist;
• Julius, the mathematician;
• Steve Ames, JANIG agent;
• Hartson Brant, chief scientist at Spindrift Island, and Rick's dad;

And there are more I can't remember. I haven't read any other series from the time period (1947 - 1969, primarily) with so many recurring, well-done characters, in such interesting stories as the Pirates of Shan (featuring a PT Boat and a cannon firing tacks), the Whispering Box Mystery (with ultrasonic weapons and countermeasures), the Ruby Ray Mystery (all about lasers, the Cold War, and the best chase scene ever), the Lost City (uranium ore and the guardians of the secret burial city of the great Khan), and more.

Hal Goodwin, under the pseudonym John Blaine, wrote most of the stories. Hal was a rocket enthusiast, and that showed up in several stories, such as the Rocket's Shadow (hitting the moon with a rocket, in 1947), the Scarlet Lake Mystery (rocket building in the desert), and the Flying Stingaree (UFOs and seafood on the east coast).

The stories are well done, and I heartily recommend them. They are mostly stand-alone, but every now and again something from a previous plot will show up.

Incidentally, the first books in the series are fairly easy to find, because so many were printed. Grosset and Dunlap kept reprinting the first ones as new volumes came out. There were few printings of the last books in the series, however. Those stories are rare and can fetch several hundred dollars (or more) if in excellent condition.

Also interesting is that the Rick Brant stories largely inspired the classic Johnny Quest cartoon adventure series, and those are a lot of fun too.

StyleWriter 4

I just purchased an editing product called StyleWriter 4. I checked out the demo and found it excellent at pointing out weak sentence construction, wordiness, and passive verb usage, among other things. StyleWriter also makes it easy to evaluate what it finds.

I've already improved several short stories with StyleWriter, and I'm looking forward to making it a regular part of my writing.

The Stratemeyer Syndicate

Ever wonder who was responsible for creating the Nancy Drew or Hardy Boys stories? The man was Edward Stratemeyer, who also created the Rover Boys, Tom Swift, and the Bobbsey twins, all very successful.

Stratemeyer's method was to create outlines of the stories, and then farm out the writing to authors for a one-time fee. In this way he was able to generate an immense number of juvenile series books. This was the Stratemeyer Syndicate, and it was exceedingly successful.

Another notable feature of the Stratemeyer syndicate was the breeder set. Generally each juvenile series would see one new book a year, but to begin a new juvenile series, several volumes would be released up front, often three (as was done with the Hardy Boys). It seems this generated interest and drew in long-term readers.

I find this interesting from the eBook perspective, as it also seems that authors who have several eBooks available do better than those with only one. It may be worth trying: get several books ready (perhaps in a series), and release them all at once.

Classic Juvenile Series

Who hasn't heard of Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys? They are perhaps the most successful series books ever in terms of longevity, and they changed the face of series books for decades, so that the detective story dominated. But in the early twentieth century, many other kinds of juvenile series books were popular, and the themes reveal something about the culture of the time.

Many early series were devoted to new technologies such as movies, motorcycles, cars, and airships. Flying stories were especially popular during World Wars I and II. Scouting and other outdoor adventure stories were quite popular until the advent of the detective story. Sports series survived, however, especially those about basketball, football, and baseball. Perhaps the best of the lot, the Chip Hilton series, has been recently reprinted.

The older stories are especially intriging because they reveal little things about the time they were written. For instance, in the original Nancy Drew stories from the 1930s, Nancy has to keep an eye on the weather if she's going to be driving anywhere. Why? Not many roads were paved then, and the roads would become impassable in the rain. Running boards on cars show up frequently, and in the Rambler Club a friendly official calls speeding "scorching".

Classic series books references may be seen in Hollywood and even in modern vocabulary. For example, the word taser stands for "Thomas A. Swift's Electric Rifle." (The book Tom Swift and His Electric Rifle was published a hundred years ago.) In the original That Darn Cat, the supporting actress mentions "Tom Swift and His Electric Switchboard". The Rover Boys are a frequent reference in older movies.

It would be interesting to know just how much series books influenced those who read them. But if only a reflection of their time, the classic series book is certainly a significant part of Western history and culture.

George MacDonald

George MacDonald, a nineteenth-century Scottish preacher, wrote the best fairy tales I have ever read, and I very much recommend them. These are some of the ones I know:

The Golden Key
The Day Boy and the Night Girl (Photogen and Nycterus)
Little Daylight
The Lost Princess (the Wise Woman)
At the Back of the North Wind
The Princess and the Goblin
The Princess and Curdie

C. S. Lewis famously said that he regarded George MacDonald as his master. I have also read that Tolkien was inspired by the underground scenes in the Princess and the Goblin.

The charm of the stories is that they speak of things faraway and beautiful and real, without being preachy; they are a child's glimpse of the Incorruptible.

Joe Konrath

Joe Konrath is an author who self-publishes with eBooks, and sells lots of them. I haven't read any of his stories myself, but I follow his blog because he posts all sorts of worthwhile information regarding self-publishing via eBooks. He also promotes other self-publishing authors, even new ones.

Many authors post comments on his blog, and I've found good stuff in them as well. Lots of insider info.

Bottom line, Konrath is very helpful to the eBook author.