I sat down with my copy of “Broken Time” at about 3:45 or so this afternoon and didn’t come up for air until 9:30 this evening.  The writing style is a breeze and goes by so fast it will leave you wanting more.

Broken Time

Set in an underground world of labyrinth corridors, bunkers, artificial lighting and Big Brother style oversight, the parents of a small ill boy battle their way to each other and to wholeness.  Doctors seek to balance discovery with personal sacrifice and come up wanting more than science can offer.  Nearly every page holds a complex melding of sci-fi biology, and super calculating systems of both biological and technological origin.  And yet the text manages to be human, warm and intriguing, even compassionate.   

The story is a truly creative look at the space between life and death and the question of wholeness and identity.  Complex themes of love and loss are interwoven with strong maternal instincts and grace.  All in all an excellent read, and the most creative tale I’ve seen in ages.  Bravo!

Here is the book’s description:

A dangerous new virus is spreading across the globe, Emergent Atoximia (EA). When an unemployed widower, Henry Poems, son Buddy is diagnosed with the new disease, his world collapses. Henry painfully watches his options disappear and knows there is only one chance left to save his son. He will trade five years of his life to the Burkette Group in exchange for the promised cure. The trade seems like a bargain until the Deep Sleep Statsis program, run by a one of a kind organic super computer named MARI, starts to develop a few glitches, plunging Henry into a world of trapped souls. Forced to navigate the endless hallways of a surreal landscape, Henry encounters a diverse group of characters that try to help him understand his connection with MARI while reintroducing him to missing parts of his own identity. On the outside, a desperate race for a cure is coming to a surprising conclusion as Dr. Alcorn begins to suspect that EA may have gone self-aware.

More info here:    http://www.lulu.com/browse/book_view.php?fCID=2350732&fContestID=1&submit=%3C%3C+Back+to+Content  This is the hardback version, a paperback version is available and also an e-book.

I should also mention that Tony wrote this book during the first fifteen days of Nanowrimo last November.  And to create this whole world (rough draft) and cast of complex characters in FIFTEEN DAYS has really completely blown me away!  And I am mentioned in the “author’s note” page.  J  Which I’ve mentioned before, but it bears repeating.  I am so proud of him I could just burst!

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I am SO excited!  I hold in my hand… *expectant hush* the fruit of a friend’s hard labor.  Last November I challenged a friend to write a novel with me for Nanowrimo.  He wrote an over 60,000 word novel, but instead of taking the whole 30 days of November, he wrote it in just 15 days!!  Yeah, is that amazing or what?!  And I’m holding the finished printed hard bound novel in my hands right now!  It just came! 

Broken Time

And guess what?!  My name is mentioned in the “Author’s Note!”  *does a little dance!*  And I quote:  “I was challenged to write a novel in the month of November by a wonderful and encouraging friend, Carmen.”  Yeah!  That’s me!  Wonderful and encouraging – LOL!  “I took the challenge, and what was birthed during that first 15 days of the month and this is the novel that follows.”

Wonderful and encouraging me

Tony Vilgiate

He’s sent me excerpts here and there along the way that I gobbled up with delight, so I’m really looking forward to taking some time to sit in my spot on the sofa and devour this thing, hook line and sinker.  I got the bits before he sent it off to be edited, and the editor took out 9000 words, so I hope it’s still as cool as it was before the editing.  I can hardly wait!  As a matter of fact, that may become my project for the day if I can tear myself away from the pressing stuff. 

Here’s the info:

Book:  Broken Time

Author: Anthony Vilgiate

Hard bound, 419 pages

Buy it at Lulu.com: http://www.lulu.com/content/2350732  

I’ll post a review once I’ve had a chance to uh… well… review it.  yeah.

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Well, I haven’t written anything on my writing project yet today.  I’m struggling to call it a novel really – just seems like chunk of text to me for now. 

I went to work a little earlier than usual this morning and then delivered a wedding cake that I decorated to the FOURTH floor of L’Talia.  Yeah, I carried that heavy thing up stairs and more stairs.  And then a few more even.  Then I went off to my studio to meet a client so she could pick up the jewelry I’d designed for her.  She stayed and talked to me for a very very long time so I was there two hours with her.  At first it was fine but after a while I started to get tired then I just wanted her to stop talking long enough that I could say bye and shut the door.  Oh well, I really do like the lady, and she is a very good customer, but I was really getting tired.  She has some great jewelry!

6394 words

Toward my goal of about 50,000 words.

I’m frustrated (again) with the nanowrimo website.  I guess that’s old news but good grief!  It is supposed to get better.  I hope soon.

But there is something I’ve been thinking about.  In one section of text I referred to something that happened in the past and then realized it would contribute to the overall building of tension in the story if I wrote it into the narrative of the story.  Which leads me to consider completely rewriting a whole section of the story.  So, how does that work with the whole “first draft” part of Nanowrimo?  I could write it over and keep both the first idea and the second in there… and later if I’m well over the word count, then I can cut it and it won’t matter.  But if I’m short on words it will matter if I start killing whole sections of the book to write them another way.  I will rewrite it, but I’ll admit that when it comes time to select the old text and hit the delete button – it may give me pause.    

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