On a really stable day

 

Coming Wednesday on various platforms.

Dictated from beneath my state of the art writer’s bunker.

Why this book? Why now? These are questions that I asked myself throughout my latest writing journey. Before I began This Side of Reality, I thought of moving away from this style, after writing three books in a similar vein. I wanted to do something different. I began to work on a couple of more traditional books (one literary fiction and one non-fiction). That’s when the war in Ukraine exploded and the great powers began escalating. I had a desire to have my say in the day's questions. At least while I could.

I have long been a historic-centric writer, a word I think I just created. I graduated with a BA in history and I was in the history honor society. I once traveled to eastern/central Europe during the nineties, as the region was changing dramatically. I’m old enough to remember when great powers regularly talked to one another and tried to avoid any accidents with weapons, whose lethality had outgrown its practicality. When I grew up, following Vietnam, our literature, movies, music, and TV shows were permeated with strong antiwar sentiments. Today, these strains are gone. In its place is a saturation of propaganda coming from our all-war, all-the-time, 24/7 state-run megaphones originating out of Washington, New York, Hollywood, and Atlanta.

Before the latest BS hit the fan, I remember an influential publication publishing an article written by a Neocon (ideologues who promote endless war from inside both US parties) saying that America needed to prepare for war with both Russia and China. I thought that this was the craziest thing that I had ever heard. I still do. Here it is, two years later, and we’re still at the same crossroads and too many people still treat the people who once published such articles like they’re sane.

As I write, the U.S. and Russian leaders have not had a meaningful dialogue in over two years. That never happened during the Cold War. Our leaders barely speak to the Chinese, unless it is to lecture them on what they must do to change. And the citizens of our proxy allies continue to die whenever our politicians, unwilling to sacrifice their own, desire more human sacrifice. Our Western European allies, who are viewed as closer to us, will eventually follow our proxy allies into battle and finally, when all else fails, it’ll be you and your family's turn rather than theirs.

As we go into the 2024 election, America’s most pressing concern is who the frontman for next season’s wars will be rather than like, the Wizard of Oz, exploring who was really behind last season’s wars. The British and the French now seem ready to send their armies (small enough to fit into a soccer stadium and whose equipment has already been lost in Ukraine); to stop 600,000 battle-hardened, heavily armed Russians. What will they do if it fails: resort to nuclear weapons? The Russians already have the largest stockpile of nuclear weapons, not that that matters in an all-out nuclear exchange. It is now more than ever that we need to revive our latent antiwar sentiments and stop being reactively deferential to leaders who, to this point, seem only too willing to slow-walk us into World War Three.

Why this book? I promise my readers that This Side of Reality will have several funny segments. Lots of the dark humor that anyone, who has read anything I’ve ever written, has come to expect. It will also be full of poignant insights. I’ll also use whatever skills and crafts I’ve learned from my years of studying the art of creative writing. And one last thing, I promise that, unlike most of what our news tells you, this book will be as truthful as I can make it. So, I invite you along on my journey…and I hope you’ll help me to return to a point where I’ll no longer feel that we are living on a knife’s edge and I can return to writing more mundane stories. The book is going to be released on 4/24. I’ll post the links on that day.

Thank you, 

Gary 

Storms Ahead

 

Some truth

 Great advice that I wholeheartedly endorse. One death is a tragedy. Multiple  hundreds is a statistics.

This about covers it

 

New book Cover

This is the new cover. To my mind, I particularly like the white rabbit following these incredible important people out of the nuclear bunker. I'm sure he's thinking thank God we have the adults in the room in charge. I hope you like it.

2nd book reveal

 

As of now I am planning the release of my book "This Side of Reality" on April 24th. I have had some unforseen hiccups concerning my previous cover which has caused for a delay in the release date, trying to avoid any potential entanglements against a potential over-litigious mouse. For this reason, there will soon be a second cover release. The formation of the cover is never as quick as I would like it to be but I trust people will understand the delay. I'm pretty excited about the new cover. I liked the old cover because it was a dichotomy of the seriousness of the times we live in and the absolute absurdity of the people supposedly rising to meet this challenge. I think the new one will take an additional step along the same path. I have a very good graphic artist but the ideas behind the cover are mine. Its time that we start actively striving for peace rather than passively allowing our leaders to engage in wars, in our name, all over the planet.

The final result

 I hope you enjoy it. I put a lot of thought into this.

The cover Reveal upcoming

 

Pretty much says it all

 

Grammar

 

Sending the cover out

Always great to take the steps of putting together a book cover. You have ideas. You hope it comes out the way you imagine it. And if it does come out that way  you can't wait to share it with the world. It's like birthing a project.

 

Truism

Definitely a true statement.

 

Another Step Along the Way

 It's always a fun day when you send out your manuscript. It's like your baby please don't hurt it and handle it with care. The road along the way to the publishing of The Other Side of Reality: how to survive this war and the next 15 to follow.

Soon I’ll be giving birth to my fourth book

(i.e. flash fiction, poetry, essay, non-fiction, current events, a hybrid) 

To paraphrase the late great Prissy from Gone with the Wind: “I don’t know nothin' 'bout birthin' no books.”

I just wanted to let people know that I am working on a fourth book and am currently about 80% to 90% complete. It’s been a strange winter it started out in November with a wonderful trip to Spain. I’d never been there before, and I loved it as anyone could tell who saw my pictures. Since then, I had surgery on one of my feet and I’ve really been out of commission for much of December/January. Getting older is lots of fun. 

The book will probably be available in either spring or late summer. I believe the spirit of this book will go very well with my prior three books. I personally think this book might be the best of the bunch.

It began to take shape around the time of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. I believe that I had a different perspective on what was happening than most Americans did. I saw much of what I was writing about was coming to fruition during that time. For that reason, this book will have a more geopolitical bent than my previous ones did. Where the last two books spoke more about the danger of the domestic situation, the camera this time has moved from an examination of the police state to an examination of the military complex, which has a lot in common. In fact the book that this one probably has the most in common with is my first one Liberté which asked a lot of questions about the European Union and what it meant. Liberté definitely had more questions than it did answers.

We are going through a very dangerous period right now and most Americans aren’t aware of it what we're facing or what it really means. Our press, all across the political spectrum, has worked overtime to misinform the public and keep information from it. Right now, the title of the book is tentatively called "This Side of Reality: How to survive this war and the next 15 to follow."

I have some idea as to how the book’s cover will appear, though I’m not ready to reveal it yet and I will share it a little later when both the book and I are a little further along. I think you’ll like it as I hope to have some easily identifiable characters on the cover. I hope to keep the trust of my readers who have enjoyed my work in the past and if you haven’t read anything I’ve written yet and you’re a little intrigued, I hope you’ll give my writing a chance in the future. This will be a great book to dive into. If it comes out the way I want it'll be poignant and funny.

I hope that all those who haven’t signed up for my author’s page will do so as it is here that I'll post any updates on my work first. I have a facebook author’s page http.www.facebook.com//garyjosephfloyd/ and there’s also one https://theroadsometimestravelled.blogspot.com/. If I’m suddenly thrown off Facebook as social media platforms have been doing more regularly these day, you can always find me here. These sites Will be the first place that I’ll publish my cover reveal. 

Well, that’s all for now. I’ll soon get back to you when more information becomes available…

Best of luck for all of us in the New Year. May we have a safe and successful year,

Gary

1/4/24