Tucson, Twenty Second Century

I decided to set my most recent novel, That Which Endures, in Tucson in the twenty-second century. I've lived in Tucson for over four years, and find it and its high-desert surroundings most interesting. Instead of the dismal state of the future in many sci-fi novels, That Which Endures takes a positive spin, and "New" Tucson is the prime city of the state. Action occurs around the University, both the paleontological lab and the time-physics lab. Having a scientist and a highly professional 'escort' as the protagonists provided an enjoyable study in contrasts. The scientist and escort are actually platonic friends, but things change when the 'escort' finds herself coming alive emotionally, feeling actual love for the first time, and making a horrifying discovery of what she really is. The scientist, a paleontologist, finds a contemporary bullet in the fossil of a giant ground sloth from fourteen thousand years past, and has a unique chance to use a secret time-travel device to travel to the past to find how that happened. The escort is pursued by those who wish to kill her when they find what she has discovered, and escapes with the scientist by time travel, into a long-gone world, where they find themselves trapped with no way to reutrn.
I've had fun writing adventure stories before, but this one was particularly satisfying. The 'escort', named Sangrawee Pattanasai, (pure Thai) develops into a noble character that I'd like to use in future books. The more I worked with her, the more attractive a person she became: beautiful, resourceful and highly intelligent. The future world has its share of evil, but there are bright lights of experience that I bring to the Tucson of the future.

Stonehenge in the action adventure world

I've recently been in touch with my "skiing expert", a wonderful and talented woman by the name of Cristina Montana of Boca Raton, Florida. She was my advisor for the skiing sequences in my most recent novel, The Jewels of Stonehenge. Naturally, there's no skiing around Stonehenge itself(!), but the novel is located in the mountains of Norway, where a replica of Stonehenge has been created for nefarious purposes. When you place such a venerated archaic monument as Stonehenge in a story, there has to be a good reason. In my novel, Stonehenge is the key to the mystery, but without the shift of venue to Norway, the entire premiss of the story would be irrelevant. It deals with precession of the Earth's axis, a vital clue about Stonehenge and summer solstice sunrise. It's great to know that I got the skiing sequences "right". They are part of the action-adventure scenario. It's also a delight to know that it 'worked' for people who are savvy with adventure, science, and fiction.

Orchard House Press has Another Edgy Expedition

It's great that the second novel in my adventure series, The PlanetCare Discoveries, was released in January 2009. The title is "The Jewels of Stonehenge". Though the setting of the expedition is Norway, unearthing a buried Viking ship, a set of bizarre jewels is discovered in one of the burial chests. It turns out they are part of a larger set of gems, 31 in total, that originated in the Stonehenge Monument when it was first completed. However, the jewels possess such a diabolical power when linked in sequence, that the original builders (whoever they were...we'll probably never know)scattered them across Europe. Now, a malevolent group of jewel thieves is reassembling them, killing any who gets in their way, and members of the PlanetCare research team are drawn into the intrigue. A perfect replica of the original Stonehenge has been constructed at a hidden location atop a fjord mountain, and as summer solstice approaches the protagonists must stop the killers from creating a death ray with the jewels of Stonehenge.
It'a a lot of fantasy sci-fi I know, but a fun action-adventure yarn, and it gave me a chance to do some research on Norway, Stonehenge and the tourmaline gems. My geology major really helped with that.
I'm truly fortunate that Orchard House Press, my publisher, has confidence in the series. The first book, "Season of the Plant", came out in September 2007 and enjoyed some success. But with two published and a third under composition, OHP will have a good action series for their many publications.

Science Fiction or Action-Adventure: Which??

Science Fiction or Action-Adventure?
When "Season of the Plant", my first book, was published last year I chose to brand it "science-fiction" because the plot dealt with paleontology and archeology. These I know are not the classic themes of sci-fi, and yet accurate science is key to the story, which moved to pure fiction with the paleontological horror that is the central idea. I now wonder. Since action-adventure-thriller is the way the story moves, and sci-fi traditionally deals with the future, I am thinking to change my presentation of the work. The book is part of a series of action-thriller stories based on scientific expeditions to different parts of the world (the second in Norway, the third in the Hawaiian Islands). Where does science fiction end as a proper designation of a book, when it is fiction and science is a core element in the story?
My second book, to be published in the near future, "That Which Endures", is definitely sci-fi, taking place a century and a half in the future, and dealing with classic sci-fi themes, including a central incident of time-travel (though the book does not hinge on it). It is still an action-adventure-thriller, but since it takes place in the future, I imagine the sci-fi genre is where it belongs.
None of my work is fantasy, which clearly has a home in the sci-fi genre. Since genre is vital to promoting a book, I find myself in a real quandary as to where to go with the problem. Where do my books fit?

Want to Share My Universe?

When my first novel was accepted for publication by Windstorm Creative, a traditional press located in Seattle, the editor suggested I make it the first volume of a series. This first book, Season of the Plant, released in September 2007, is an action-adventure story of an expedition to the jungles of Belize, where a sentient and murderous species of plant entraps them. The series, entitled The PlanetCare Discoveries, is to be based on similar expeditions to different parts of the world, PlanetCare being the sponsoring organization of the journeys. All books in the series are to be action-adventure, and all hopefully with some sci-fi theme, as is my book. What is interesting is that the series is part of the publisher’s Shared Universe Project, in which other authors or aspiring authors are invited to submit manuscripts. Accepted books will be published under the author’s own name, without reference to mine, although I am the ‘seminal’ author of the series. At Windstorm’s request I have written a small volume, The PlanetCare Discoveries Sourcebook, as a guide for potential authors. This was also published in September 2007. I invite and urge authors or aspiring authors who might be interested in this type of opportunity to contact me at masterman1225@yahoo.com.

Science fiction Slugfest

About a year ago, my first short story was published by Fandom Press, a division of Windstorm Creative. It was part of a science fiction anthology entitled "Tales of the Slug". All the stories deal with slugs, in one genre or another, and thirteen clever tales make up the book. My own offering, "A Matter of Taste", is concerned with a sleazy scientist who has a taste for rare and endangered species of animal. He tracks down a delicious dish made from outlawed slugs, and finds a terrifying surprise at the end of his ruthless endeavors to discover their source.
Each story has its own bizarre twists and turns. It's science fiction with doses of pure fun, humor, and at times a touch of horror.

My latest Sci-fi Book Review

I was delighted to find Season of the Plant, my first sci-fi novel to be published, given a great review in the Boca Raton News, in Boca Raton, Florida, and also in The Florida Weekly, published in Fort Myers, Florida. The review gives a good summary of the story and catches the mood I hoped to create.

Here it is:

Books

by Prudy Taylor Board

In Season of the Plant, Rev. Frederick J. Masterman, retired associate priest at St. Gregory's Episcopal Church in Boca Raton, has created a thoughtful, suspenseful, intriguing thriller that involves an ancient and deadly form of rogue plant life determined to exterminate all human and animal life from the planet.

The book begins as an archeological and botanical research team journeys to an ancient Mayan ruin, Xuntap, in the jungles of southern Belize. The protagonist is Sam Casper, one of the volunteer team members and the great-great nephew of Arthur Fremont, a famous archeologist who had vanished in these same jungles in the 1923. While finding his uncle’s remains is Sam’s primary motivation, he is soon attracted to Karen Closky, a botanist who is more than beautiful — she’s psychic and actually talks to and understands plants. The other members of the team include scientists and students and members of the Belize National Police led by Captain Antonio Torcado. Other research teams had disappeared while investigation Xuntap and Torcado is assigned to protect this expedition to avoid bad publicity that might adversely affect Belize’s burgeoning tourism.

The research expedition has been organized by an organization named PlanetCare founded by Dr. Ian McDermott. McDermott has always operated on a cautious, ethically and scientifically-sound basis, but the possibility of worldwide publicity and the resultant profit from organizing more adventurous and costly fields trips has Glen Krease, his second-in-command and heir apparent, salivating. Krease is determined to do whatever it takes to get McDermott out of the picture. And he’s also not the least bit concerned about potential damage to the environment.

Masterman’s book is fascinating. As skillfully as his characters weave their way through the flora and fauna of the jungle, the author weaves a plot filled with menacing, escalating events that begin with minor sicknesses that befall two team members. While there’s high excitement as they uncover a Mayan temple and ball court and stairs in the middle of the jungle that rise to nowhere, frightening dreams plague everyone, the seven Land Rovers that represent their transportation to safety are damaged, and soon the death toll begins to mount as does suspense for the reader. The climax of the novel is chilling and well written. Masterman’s grasp of botany and archeology is impressive and lends credibility to the book.

Season of the Plant. Trade paperback from Windstorm Creative. $16.99. 294 pages. ISBN 978-1-59092-502-7.