Friday, February 22, 2013

Book Tour--MINOTAUR REVISITED by David Gelber

Goddess Fish Book Tour

MINOTAUR REVISITED by David Gelber
A historical fantasy

BLURB
Legend states that the Minotaur was confined to the Labyrinth, slain by Theseus and then laid to rest by thousands of years of Greek mythology. But, the truth is far different. Read the Minotaur’s own words as he recounts his full life as god, king, warrior, matchmaker, midwife, monk, sage, father, mother, husband and, most of all, witness. The fierce Minotaur lived to see and be a part of the best and worst of humanity during a life spanning thousands of years. Part bull, part human, the Minotaur struggled to find his place in this world and, in the end, left his unique mark on history.

AN INTERVIEW WITH DAVID GELBER
-What book and/or experience made you want to be a writer?

In high school I wrote a few things which my teachers thought were entertaining and funny. At that time I considered becoming a writer. I had always had an idea for a story, a character actually, but never had the drive to sit down and write until I started “Future Hope” in 2006. That character became Joshua Smith, who is first appears in “Future Hope” and takes center stage in “Joshua and Aaron.” Joshua Smith is a character who is a bit cynical, extremely intelligent and resourceful. He solves problems by using his intelligence and insight.

-What genre(s) do you write?

My fiction stories are speculative fiction/science fiction. “Minotaur Revisited” probably fits best into the genre of historical fantasy. The two books about surgery are nonfiction.

-For other aspiring writers, any tips?

Write about what interests you, don’t be afraid to use your imagination and find a good editor.

-What’s your favorite book/genre to read?

Literary Classics such as Dickens, Hugo, Dostoyevsky.

-What’s your favorite thing you’ve ever written?

The poker scene in “Joshua and Aaron” where Joshua Smith has to play poker with Death while the entire fare of humanity hangs on his success or failure.

ABOUT DAVID
David Gelber, a New York native, is the seventh of nine sons and one of three to pursue medicine. He graduated from Johns Hopkins University in 1980 and went on to graduate medical school in 1984 from the University of Rochester.

He completed his residency at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, Texas, followed by three years as attending surgeon at Nassau County Medical Center in Long Island, N.Y. Gelber has since joined Coastal Surgical Group in Houston, Texas.

Gelber has been a surgeon for more than 20 years, but over the last few years he began to pursue his passion for writing, initially with his debut novel, "Future Hope" (Emerald Book Company, January 2010). The novel speculates about future Earth and what the world might have been like if man had not succumbed to temptation in the Garden of Eden. "Joshua and Aaron" is a sequel to "Future Hope" and follows the battle of wills that transpires between unsung hero Joshua Smith and satanic Aaron Diblonski.

Dr. Gelber has added two books about surgery, "Behind the Mask" and "Under the Drapes", both of which provide the reader with a view of the world of surgery rarely seen by those outside the medical professions.

"Last Light" is an apocalyptic short story which starts off asking the question: "What would happen if nobody ever was sick or injured?”

"Minotaur Revisited" is an entertaining romp through history seen through the eyes of Quint, the famed half bull half man monster of Greek Mythology.

“I thought I might become a writer when I was in high school. However, college was only discouraging and I took the easy way out and became a surgeon instead. About seven years ago I had an idea for a futuristic novel and managed to write “Future Hope”, book one of the ITP series. I followed this with “Joshua and Aaron”, book two in that series. These books are speculative fiction, looking at a future earth where God and religion have been eliminated. My wife suggested I write about something I actually knew about, so I wrote two books about surgery, “Behind the Mask” and “Under the Drapes”. Along the way I also wrote a short story, “Last Light”, an eschatological story and now, “Minotaur Revisited”, which started as a short story but blossomed into a short novel.”

Gelber was raised in reformed Judaism, but joined the Presbyterian Church 15 years ago. He is married with three teenage children, four dogs and 24 birds of various species. His interests include horse racing, mechanical Swiss watches and, of course, writing.

Visit David’s website, and check out his blog.

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Hey, readers,

A new take on an old story, very cool.

And of course, don’t forget to leave comments on the posts for this tour and on David’s review tour for a chance at an awesome prize.

David will be awarding a $100 Amazon GC to a randomly drawn commenter at the conclusion of the two tours.

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Writer Hell

Hello folks,

I had my own version of Writer Hell this morning. The next time you get down about writing, remember this anecdote.

My thesis novel for Seton Hill is killing me slowly. Recently, it occurred to me that I needed to haul ass or burn rubber or something if I wanted to finish and graduate on time. So I instituted a 1000-word-a-day plan. For anyone who was around last October and remembers my 531-a-day project (aka my urban fantasy), this is that on steroids.

Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, no one/nothing is perfect…including computers. I made an “oops” this morning. I was chugging along about 500 words into my thousand for the day. Things were good.

And then I (completely accidentally and in the span of about 2 seconds) selected all, hit backspace, saved, and closed the file. I had 2500 words of this month’s submission in this document.

Oh. my. God!

Needless to say I was not happy. I also had a full blown panic attack.

Did you know that windows can only recover previous versions of a document if you didn’t close the document? Me neither, but I was not happy to learn this.

That didn’t help the panic attack, and post learning this fact I fled to Google and began my frantic search for a solution.

Nothing.

In a stroke of desperation, I downloaded a file retriever and ran it on my flash drive.

Results!

I got back Monday and Tuesday’s progress—2000 words. Holy Hell, yes, that’s fine. I needed to seriously rework what I’d written this morning anyway.

I’ve never been happier to see 2000 words in my life.

And so it is with everlasting gratitude that I give a shout out and a big promotion to Pandora Recovery. You saved my thesis and possibly my life.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Monday, February 18, 2013

Writing Boston

Good Monday,

I’m feeling nostalgic today, and I’m missing my Boston something fierce. But until the cost of living in New England goes down, I’ll have to be content with watching the snow progress from afar.

No worries, though. I intend to turn my homesickness into a productive blog post for writers. Look at me being all “for the greater good” –ish.

A large part of realism in a novel set on Earth is accuracy. It is very important to know your setting. If you’ve set your story in Panama, for example, I beg you not to have three feet of snowfall unless it’s post-apocalyptic Panama.

I spent the first 24 years of my life in Massachusetts. As I’ve heard many times about other places, “you can take the girl out of Boston, but you can’t take the Boston out of the girl.” This is true, and today I’ve got some Massachusetts details for anyone writing about the area.

Contrary to some popular beliefs, Bostonians are not jerks. A bit egotistical (lol), yes, but not jerks. If you really want to set your Boston characters apart from the rest, we curse in public, glare a lot, and shout a lot of nasty stuff when you cut in front of us while driving. But under most of the callous exteriors, there are people worth knowing.

-Speech Patterns

For the record “we don’t have accents. The rest of the world does.”

A lot of Bostonians drop their “r”s. I don’t unless I’m angry, but I’ve known plenty who do. To get the accent right, try the traditional old standby “Pahk the cah in Hahvahd yahd.” It should read “Park the car in Harvard Yard,” but really, who talks like that? Oh, the rest of the world, right.

Wicked

Saying something is “wicked” is an England thing. Well, Boston is in New England, so we adopted it. (I’m not sure if that’s true, but it sounds good.) We use “wicked” to modify things, though. One popular saying is “wicked awesome.” Then you have your die-harders who say (dun dun dun) “wicked pissa.”

-Community Behavior

Jaywalking. We love jaywalking. If you go to Boston and don’t jaywalk, people will stare at you. It’s an expected way of crossing streets. The drivers know it’s coming, and they honk anyway. Without being offensive, New Englanders have notoriously short memories for trivial stuff. Once behind the wheel, they forget that they were jaywalking twenty minutes ago.

-Seasons

The same short-term memory issue applies to the seasons. In the winter, we complain that it’s cold. In the summer, we complain that it’s hot. Both times, it is as if the weather has never been any other way, and why won’t it ever hurry it up and get to the next season!?!?

Oh and spring doesn’t exist. Autumn is “the time when the trees turn pretty colors” and, to a lot of people, may as well be winter.

-Pronunciation Guide

Worcester – It looks like Wor-chester. It’s not. It’s not even Wooster. It’s Wistah. I don’t know why all those extra letters are in there.

Peabody – If this wasn’t my hometown, I wouldn’t bother with it because odds are good you’ve never heard of it. It’s not Pea-body. It’s Pea-biddy. Get it right!:)

Massachusetts Avenue – Mass Ave. Short, sweet, to the point.

Massachusetts Turnpike – Mass Pike

Cape Cod – It’s just “the Cape” to Mass natives.

Bostonians – I’ve tried, and you feel free to try if you’d like. There is no way to say people from Massachusetts by adding letters to the end of the state. Massachusettens? Massachusettians? Massachusettizians? No. People from Massachusetts are simply “Bostonians,” even if they aren’t from Boston itself.

-Navigation Guide

For the whole state

North Shore – anything north of Boston but still relatively close to the ocean

South Shore – Anything south of Boston but still relatively close to the ocean

Greater Boston area - the area inside 128 (not Route 128. 128)

Western Massachusetts – everything else. Not unnaturally, the western part of the state has developed a bit of “grr” from always being lumped together like this. But who listens to them anyway? (I’m from the North Shore. Can you tell?)

For Boston

North End – Northern Boston. You can’t swing a dead cat without hitting an Italian restaurant, and it is not called “Little Italy.”

South Boston – Southie to locals

East Boston – The airport’s there. Other than that, I have no idea.

Dorchester – It’s technically part of Boston, but people from Dorchester are “from Dorchestah.”

Jamaica Plain – Technically part of Boston, but people from Jamaica Plain are “from JP.”

Brighton – same as above

Brookline – same as above

Mattapan – same as above

There are more of these. To quote the king from “The King and I” “etc. etc. etc.”

-Travel

Boston and the surrounding areas have public transit. There is the subway, the commuter rail, the ferry, and the busses. All the info for all branches/routes is available at the official MBTA website. I defer you there because they have maps that will be more helpful to your characters than me describing the city.

There’s my two cents.

As a parting gift, here are a few books set in Massachusetts.

“The Killer’s Cousin” – Nancy Werlin
Victory Vaughn Series – Nancy Holzner
The Rizzoli and Isles books – Tess Gerritsen
“Cell” – Stephen King