Cubs and inquiries

Greetings, fellow Bearers (and inquisitive minds)!

This week, I want to touch base on two things.  First, I've got a poem dedicated to the Chicago Cubs.  Any of you who are diehard Cubs fans who lament the century plus of heartbreak brought on by the Northsiders of the Windy City, this one's for you.  Don't worry: one day they will do it.

Funny enough: I don't live in Chicago, and having grown up in Michigan, my team was the Tigers.  But I caught this documentary on HBO called "Wait 'til next year," which tells the story of the Cubs and the ups and downs they've gone through.  Even if you're not a baseball fan, it's an interesting watch.  And while baseball isn't my favorite sport, that documentary resonated with me.  Last year I went to see the Cubs play the Tigers in Detroit.  Great game, although I and my son were forced to leave by the fifth inning (Ever felt humidity in Detroit?  It ain't fun).  People have asked me who I would root for if the Cubs and Tigers ever met in a World Series.  My response?  I'll let you know when it happens :D

Second, I've been receiving several requests from people who have asked me to try to describe what sort of fantasy the World of the Vein embodies.  This is a difficult one to answer, because anyone who has read The Summoning of Clade Josso will tell you that it's not your typical Tolkien-style fantasy.  In other words, you don't have knights and elves and orcs and dragons and what not.  While I appreciate the influence Tolkien has on the fantasy world (and let's face it: he deserves a lot of the credit for it, if not almost all of the credit), I didn't want to go in that direction.  That's been done by enough authors in my opinion.

What I wanted with the Vein was something fresh and different.  Something that blends the past and the future, and has a completely unique look and feel.  The beauty of this is that you have a world and a story which stands out in a very unusual way, because there's nothing to compare it to.  The drawback, however, is that it's difficult to relate the World of the Vein with anything else out there, because there's nothing to compare it to.  That's why I tell people "You just have to read the book."

I suppose that, if there were to be any comparison to make, the closest concept I could compare the Vein to would have to be Stephen King's Dark Tower series, but even this falls short, because from what I understand (I've not read much of it, so I'm going by what little I know), King still relates his fantasy to elements of the "real world," such as New York City and Topeka, Kansas, both of which are found in his series.  The hero, Roland, is a gunslinger-a cool concept, I admit, but a very different character in development and motive than the Vein's Clade Josso. 

I would certainly welcome anybody who has read both King's novels (or at least The Gunslinger) and mine to put up a comparison of the two.  I've intentionally refrained from reading any of King's DT works because I've wanted to keep mine as orginal as possible.  Granted, if I did read his novels, it wouldn't change what I have planned, but I think I'll wait until my work is all finished.

Besides, knowing my past with Stephen King, I'll end up dropping off the end of the earth if I start reading anything of his (That's a BIG compliment to Mr. King-I can't put his books down :D )

So, until then, check out the work put up on Smashwords, and Old Velt WILL be finished up soon.  Promise.

Until then, See you in the Vein!

J. Dean