Genesis
2.0
Magic
Circles Series
Book
2
Collin
Piprell
Genre: Sci-Fi, Mystery Thriller
Publisher: Common Deer Press
Date of Publication: October 5,
2017
ISBN: 9781988761039
Number of pages: 660
Cover Artist: Ellie Sipila
Book Description:
A nanobot superorganism lays
waste to the Earth. Is this the apocalypse? Or does the world’s end harbor new
beginnings?
Life will always find a way.
Though some ways are better than others.
Evolution on steroids and crack
cocaine —the most significant development since inanimate matter first gave
rise to life.
You can’t predict novel
evolutionary developments, you recognize them only after they emerge.
Then you have to deal with them.
EXCERPT
1 (700 words)
angry
gods
FLASH.
The watching has just turned prime time.
Flash, flash, flash.
The gods are angry. About seven klicks northwest of
Eden, fake Edens flicker and dance across the landscape as godbolts crackle and
hiss out of the high haze, leaving a succession of smoking craters across the
Boogoo. Truly spectacular.
Flash-sizzle, flash.
The land itself cringes. Crater walls draw away from
each strike to a hundred and fifty meters before lensing back to erase all
trace of themselves. High above, the sky puckles. That’s how Poppy describes
it, though Auntie says there’s no such word. It’s like a series of yellow-green
holes opening and then puckering shut. It’s too bad she can’t be out here with
them to watch. This is so cool. Son clicks his spearsticks together to attract
Poppy’s attention and shoots him a double thumbs-up. Poppy brushes aside gods
and their fireworks alike. They’ve got work to do.
The godbolts stalk across the terrain, just missing
the false-Eden holos that wink in and out at random from eastern horizon to
western. Never does the barrage tend closer to where Son watches. The ken
suggests that he and Poppy remain safe, stationed as they are well inside the
five-kilometer safe zone surrounding Eden. Never have either Eden mirages or
godbolts trespassed on this apparently sacred area.
But even at this distance, where he’s concealed in
the same overburden of dust that’s cratering way off in the distance, he feels
it. The reaction. Like a mild electric shock followed by a tremor. It runs from
the ground beneath him right up through his mantle. For that moment, he and the
land are kin. Has Poppy also felt this? He’d never admit it if he has.
At one with the Boogoo. Wow. That’s something he can
tell Auntie. She’ll enjoy the idea, unlike Poppy who’d probably threaten to
lock him away in the back storeroom for a few days, the way he used to when Son
was little, leaving him alone with himself till he got his head straight again.
Whatever. What’s past is past.
*
About
the Author:
Collin Piprell is a Canadian
writer resident in Thailand. He has also lived in England, where he did
graduate work as a Canada Council Doctoral Fellow (later, a Social Sciences and
Humanities Fellow) in politics and philosophy at Pembroke College, Oxford; and
in Kuwait, where he learned to sail, water-ski and make a credible red wine in
plastic garbage bins.
In earlier years, he worked at a
wide variety of occupations, including four jobs as a driller and stope leader
in mines and tunnels in Ontario and Quebec. In later years he taught writing
courses at Thammasat University, Bangkok, freelanced as a writer and editor,
and published hundreds of articles on a wide variety of topics (most of these
pieces are pre-digital, hence effectively written on the wind). He is also the
author of short stories that appeared in Asian anthologies and magazines, as
well as five novels (a sixth forthcoming in 2018), a collection of short
stories, a collection of occasional pieces, a diving guide to Thailand, another
book on diving, and a book on Thailand’s coral reefs. He has also co-authored a
book on Thailand’s national parks.
Common Deer Press is publishing
the first three novels in his futuristic Magic Circles series.
Collin has another short novel
nearly ready to go, something he only reluctantly describes as magic realism.
Less nearly ready to go are novels he describes as a series of metaphysical
thrillers. Not to mention several Jack Shackaway comic thrillers, follow-ups to
Kicking Dogs. He also has a half-finished letter to his grandmother, dated 10
October 1991, saying thanks for the birthday gift.
Interview:
1.
What literary pilgrimages have you gone on?
None, that I can think of. Though I did wind
up in Wordsworth’s cottage in the Lake District one time on a walking holiday.
But that was by accident. Other than that, my college supervisor in the UK
would sometimes take me on a very pleasant two- or three-kilometer walk that he
used to share with his friend Tolkien, though he and I talked philosophy and
politics rather than fiction.
2.
What is the first book that made you cry?
You’ve just made me realize I’m probably a cold bastid at heart,
because I can’t remember any specific book that made me cry. Though a couple
have made me laugh enough to almost make me cry, Catch-22 for one (though it
didn’t prove as potent when I re-read it about twenty-five years later).
3.
Does writing energize or exhaust you?
Sometimes one, sometimes the other, depending upon how chummy my
Muse is proving.
4.
What is your writing Kryptonite?
Hangovers. For more on that notion, I’ll refer you to ‘Ersatz
creativity’ (http://www.collinpiprell.com/writerly-occupational-hazards-ersatz-creativity-boozing/).
5.
Did you ever consider writing under a pseudonym?
At one point in my magazine-writing career I had seven pseudonyms,
two of them female. Anne Fiske was what I hid behind when I had to write gushy
stuff about five-star resorts. Anne was Ham Fiske’s sister, and Ham Fiske was a
two-fisted, beer-swilling hombre who wouldn’t be caught dead spinning brochure
copy disguised as feature stories.
Many years ago Post Publications brought out Bangkok Old Hand, a collection of Ham
Fiske stories (long since out of print). Here’s the preface to that book:
Collin
Piprell is a Canadian writer and editor living in Bangkok. Aside from the many
magazine articles that he has had published, mostly around Asia and most of
them under his own name, he is the author of three novels and various works of
non-fiction.
All
but a few of these stories have been previously published in the Bangkok Post, Fah Thai, Thailand Tatler,
or Asia Magazine.
Most
of the stories first appeared under the byline "Ham Fiske".
Why
that particular pseudonym? Years before the writer had ever written anything for
publication, he thought he would one day like to be a writer. But, once, after
he had revealed all in a bar-room conversation, it was pointed out that
"Collin Piprell" was kind of hard to remember, which was really the
kindest thing you could say about the name; and he'd never become a famous
writer unless he could think of a good pseudonym. So everybody sat around and
thought about it for a while. Then suddenly, out of nowhere, it came to him.
"Ham Fiske"! It was short, easy to spell, and had a certain lusty
heft to it. More importantly, though, reviewers wouldn't be able to resist it.
They could start every review with "And here we have another typically
ham-fisked effort ..." According to
the "It doesn't matter what they say, as long as they talk about me"
school of self-promotion, it would only be a matter of time before he was rich,
famous, and buried in groupies.
He
had the name, but it took him several more years before he actually wrote
anything to hang it on. And, he reports, having eventually written 40-50 short
stories, articles, and essays as Ham Fiske, he still wasn't noticeably bothered
by groupies so he said what the hell, and went back to being plain old Colin
Prep ... Collin Pipe ... Um. Who?
6.
What other authors are you friends with, and how do they help
you become a better writer?
I have a number of writer friends, though I’m not sure how
they’ve helped me other than by offering moral support when it was needed. Some
have commented on draft fiction, which was appreciated, whether or not I agreed
with their suggestions.
7.
Do you want each book to stand on its own, or are you trying to
build a body of work with connections between each book?
Both. I’ve written books
that are very different in voice and genre, but I’m currently concentrating on Magic
Circles, a series of science-fiction books. Despite the fact Magic Circles presents
one continuous story, however, each novel is meant to stand on its own, though
reading them in order might lend the later volumes extra depth.
8.
What authors did you dislike at first but grew into?
I can’t think of examples of authors that fit
that description, but there have certainly been books that shut me down in my
first tries at them. A couple come to mind that eventually ranked among my
favorite novels.
One of these was Malcolm Lowry’s Under the Volcano. People kept
recommending it over the years, and I’d find it like wading in mud. Then a
writer friend here in Bangkok bought a first edition and passed me his older hardback
edition. So I felt compelled to read past the mud stage and, to my wonder and
delight, found myself drawn into something I believe is a work of genius, never
mind I also believe it could have benefited from more line editing. (It’s past
time I re-read it, I realize now.) Another such novel was Suttree, by Cormac McCarthy. Again, in the couple of first tries I
found the first 40pp. or so impenetrable. Then, when I managed to read past
that long prologue, I became totally engaged. Having finally finished the book,
I went back to the start and found that brilliant as well.
9.
What’s your favorite under-appreciated novel?
The Sopranos, by the Scottish
writer Alan Warner, comes to mind. I think it deserves much greater
recognition. It’s both really funny and a serious, emotionally affecting novel.
10.
As a writer, what would
you choose as your mascot/avatar/spirit animal?
Don’t know. Gazelles or greyhounds come to
mind, though people who know me tend to describe me as a bear. Something I find
unaccountable.
11.
How many unpublished and half-finished
books do you have?
I have a short novel that I suppose might be described as magic
realism. I consider it the best thing I’ve ever written. I still have to find a
publisher that shares my opinion in this matter. (It would probably help if I actually
submitted it somewhere. Right now it’s kind of like waiting to win the lottery,
never mind I haven’t bought a ticket). I have a number of chapters toward a
Jack Shackaway sequel to Kicking Dogs,
a comic thriller that had three publishers over the years and may soon have
another. I’ve also got material towards a non-fiction book that I’d prefer not
to describe just now.
12.
What did you edit out of this book?
Genesis 2.0 is long, but both the publisher and myself
prefer to think it isn’t too long. At one point, however, the ms. was much
longer still. I shrunk it mainly by trying to cut each scene, even each
sentence, to the bone. I had an agent a few years ago who read what I had and
found a couple of synesthetic sex scenes that he thought were too purple; I decided
he was right, and gave them the chop.
13.
If you didn’t write, what
would you do for work?
My earliest ambition was to be a garbage man. Please have a look
at ‘How to write a novel that flies’ (http://www.collinpiprell.com/airplanes-and-novels/) for details.
14.
Do you hide any secrets in your books that only a few people
will find?
I can’t think of any, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t there. In
fact a qualified psychoanalyst could probably uncover any number of secrets I’d
just as soon stayed hidden.
15.
What is your favorite childhood book?
When I was a kid, my father built me a bed with
bookshelves for a headboard. Some of the titles I recall, favorites I read
again and again, included Tom
Sawyer, Huckleberry
Finn, Penrod, A Child’s History of the
World, A
Child’s Geography of the World, a couple of books by
archaeologists, including Mortimer
Wheeler’s Archaeology from the Earth, some fat hardback with
B&W photos of Petra, a field guide to the denizens of pond water (my folks
had bought me a microscope, a good one), and more. An account of some
paleontologist’s expeditions in the Gobi Desert.
When I was a bit older I came to love such humorists
as James Thurber, Damon Runyon, P.G. Wodehouse and Stephen Leacock.
Website/blog: www.collinpiprell.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/collin.piprell
Book page: https://www.facebook.com/newsciencefiction/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/collinpiprell
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