I want to talk a little bit about the two books I have out. Just a little background into the stories that comprise the two.
With Eyes Open... is comprised of two stories, "With Eyes Open..." and its unintended sequel, "A Voice in the Darkness".
"With Eyes Open..." has the honor of being the first story ever
published back in 2005, in a now defunct ezine named Deep Magic. It
actually started as a writing exercise.
I had read somewhere that if you're stuck, turn
on the television, go to any channel, write down the first thing you
hear and build a story from that. I did this, writing down the sentence
"Isn't there anything you want to tell me about your marriage?" (Don't
ask me the program; I've forgotten it.) So I started writing about a
break up. Problem was, I was still having trouble. So I stopped for a
little while.
Then something else happened.
Answer me
this: Have you ever been alone in a room, yet see movement out of the
corner of your eye? Youi know it's just your mind playing tricks on
you, or maybe (as is my case) it's your cat. But I started thinking,
what if there was a race here on Earth with us, completely unnoticed,
completely intangible and invisible. They need a single human to anchor
them here.
Could I turn the aborted break-up story into something about these creatures?
Of course I could, and it's one of my favorite stories.
So the story that began as Mira Frayne breaking up with a man led to
Mira making a discovery about the world and being tied to these
creatures.
I was trying for a Twilight Zone feel to the story,
something that started out one way and led you down an entirely
different path. When I finished the story, I knew I would be visiting
with Mira again, though I didn't know when.
Sometimes, sequels
are planned, sometimes they happen accidentally. That was the case with
"A Voice in the Darkness".
The
second story in With Eyes Open..., "A Voice in the Darkness", had a
strange path to completion. It didn't even start out as a sequel to
"With Eyes Open..." But that's how it goes with my writing; a story will
start out heading in one direction the suddenly take a hard right into
weirdness.
I had the thought that something had gone wrong on one of the stations that orbit Earth in the late 22nd-early
23rd centuries. I didn't know exactly what, but I knew it had something
to do with a government organization known as MilSci, short for
Military Science. My main character used to work for them but left a few
years earlier. Somehow, her ex husband was involved.
I had
started writing the story without a thought of "With Eyes Open..." Then
Mira showed up, along with the Adityas. I knew then that the Adityas
were behind what had happened but still didn't know why. So I put it
aside to try and figure out what happened.
Mark the passage of at least a few years.
In early 2012, I started making a push to complete the numerous
unfinished stories that had accumulated over the years. So I started
with "A Voice in the Darkness" and completed it within a few months.
Why couldn't I have done that the first time around?
With Eyes Open... is currently available on...
Lulu - http://www.lulu.com/shop/michael-p-dunn/with-eyes-open/ebook/product-20692075.html
iTunes - https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/with-eyes-open.../id571656584?mt=11
NOOK - http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/with-eyes-open-michael-p-dunn/1113785854
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